ANTH 320/DEVS 321, FALL 2017, Dr. S. Vincent
Description of Poorland, a country of the Global South and of Villachica, a peasant community in Poorland.
Average annual income: $US650
Literacy: 65 percent
Total population: 20 million
• 80 percent of population is of indigenous descent
• 60 percent of population lives in urban areas, half of these (6 million people) in the capital, Bigugly
• 39 percent in rural areas, many with access to small plots of land for subsistence farming
• 1 percent live as hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists in the jungle
Poorland’s major exports are:
•
the tuttle crop (a popular leisure beverage in the Global North
and beginning to be of interest in Emergland, similar to coffee or tea)
• and the mineral wormite (mined in both
underground and open pit mines, used in electronics produced in
Emergland, which are used throughout the world in both personal and
high tech applications)
The state of Poorland in the global context:
•
Poorland was “discovered” by the Yurroppan colonial power Spam
about 500 years ago, gaining independence about 200 years ago
•
Some trade and political relations still happen with Spam,
although Canda and other countries of the Global North became dominant
trade and political partners about 100 years ago
•
More recently, Emergland, formerly a country considered poor but
whose major efforts in producing cheap industrial goods with its
abundant and poorly paid work force have made it a global economic
power. Emergland is transforming this economic dominance into global
political clout
Distribution of wealth:
•
.5 percent of the population controls 70 percent of the wealth –
they are mostly descended from the colonial elite, although Poorland
gained independence 150 years ago; they tend to live in wealthy parts
of the capital city
• 80 percent of the
population controls 10 percent of the wealth – mostly indigenous,
living in all areas of the country
• therefore
19.5 percent controls 20 percent of the wealth - this is the middle
class; they live mostly on the coast and in Bigugly
Territory:
•
Poorland has a total size of 1 million square kilometres. It has
an ocean coast with a port where the capital city, Bigugly is located.
There are few roads in areas distant from the major cities.
• Poorland’s territory is a mixture of
•
- mountain (45 percent – where the wormite for export is mined;
most of the peasants, including the people of Villachica, live here and
carry out subsistence and market agricultural production and are
starting to experiment in growing tuttle crops);
•
- lowland (45 percent - where the tuttle, mostly for export, is
grown by peasants who have moved there; some of this is unexploited
jungle where some forager people, notably of Marj’nal cultural groups,
live); and
• - the capital city, Bigugly, is on
the coast; the coast covers 10 percent of the territory but has almost
all of the industry and infrastructure
Villachica
•
Villachica is a highland peasant community with a small
population. They rely on subsistence agriculture, some market selling
of tuttle, and income from Villachiqueños who work in the wormite
mines. Further, many Villachiqueños have migrated to the lowlands to
grow tuttle (having got the land through a government sponsored program
to colonize the jungle 50 years ago), as well as to the capital,
Bigugly and smaller cities such as Smallugly. Thus, the population has
a small core of residents who have never migrated and a larger group
who have returned after short or long periods of migration, either to
retire or to wait until an opportunity arises that will provide them an
income elsewhere. All Villachiqueños also have ties to migrants who
have lived elsewhere for their entire working lives, and whose children
have never lived in Villachica, although they may visit for fiestas.
•
Villachica has a local elected government that has a mandate to
manage collective resources. Most of the land is collectively owned,
although little of it is useful at the moment. In addition, most
families own land, although the amounts are unequal. Some families do
no farming at all, since returns from farming are very low and it is
considered hard work that gives no prestige.
• All
resident Villachiqueños have incomes below the poverty line, and most
migrant Villachiqueños are also poor. A few migrants have moderate
incomes.