Maya children : helpers at the farm /

This is not an ethnographic study of Maya Indians so much as it is a scientific study of the economic potential of children in the households of subsistence farmers. During fieldwork in a Maya village in Campeche, Mexico, anthropologist Kramer (SUNY Stony Brook) gathered a wealth of data on crop yields, demography, the scheduling and time requirements of various essential tasks, etc. Using in part research methods developed to study primate behavior, her goal was to quantify what children's labor contributed to household economies and to determine at what age children commenced to produce more than they consumed. (Not until they marry and have children of their own, it turned out.) Debates continue in the field of human demography over the reasons for high fertility among subsistence agriculturists. Is there a positive economic rationale for having so many children? For its depth, rigor, and quality, Kramer's case study will likely play an important role in the development or resolution of that debate. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. R. Sullivan independent scholar