Pepper in the Hills: Upland-Lowland Exchange and the Intensification of the Spice Trade

There is a longstanding history in South Asia of relations of exchange and interdependence between agriculturalists and peoples involved in the hunting of wild animals and the gathering of wild plants. These relationships, far from being an historically fixed and immutable, were instead marked by a high degree of variability and flexibility with specific groups of people altering their strategies in relation to ecological, demographic, and political imperatives. These points are not controversial—many scholars have described such relationships and have contributed significantly to our understanding of the tremendous diversity of South Asian prehistoric and historic subsistence strategies. I would like to build from this literature in two ways. First of all, I would suggest that the strategies of contemporary forager-trader groups in South Asia are best viewed as the outcome of historically contingent processes, not merely as cultural-evolutionary throwbacks. Second, and more specifically, I will be concerned here to trace some of the changes and possible changes in the organization of foraging/trading groups in southwestern India coincident with the expansion of the coastal spice trade and the increasing integration of this region into a 1