Farming Systems and Socio-Cultural Determinants of Child Growth in Two Ecological Zones of Ecuador

该项目涉及文化和生物人类学家，他们研究厄瓜多尔儿童生长差异的原因。将研究两个社区的家庭，一个是高地较传统的农业社区，另一个是低地以经济作物为导向的社区。方法包括参与者观察、调查、正式访谈和定期测量家庭样本中的成长、疾病和活动。有待检验的假设是，通过提供更广泛的食物种类并允许母亲对资源有更多的自主权和控制权，传统的耕作制度产生的孩子比那些更“现代”的经济作物制度的孩子成长得更好。这项研究之所以重要，是因为儿童健康问题在发展中国家至关重要，而强调“现代”经济作物农业的发展方案可能会忽视饮食和母亲获得资源的问题，从而损害家庭的整体健康。这个项目将提供一个对照比较，这将有助于揭示这一问题。

This project involves cultural and biological anthropologists studying the causes of growth variation in Ecuadorian children. Households in two communities, one a more traditional farming community in the highlands and the other a more cash-crop oriented community in the lowlands will be studied. Methods include participant observation, surveys, formal interviews, and periodic measures of growth, illness and activity in a sample of families. The hypothesis to be tested is that the traditional farming regime produces children who grow better than those in the more "modern", cash crop regime, by providing a broader assortment of foods and allowing mothers more autonomy and control over resources. This research is important because the issue of child health is critical in the developing world, and development programs stressing "modern" cash-crop agriculture may be damaging the overall health of the families by ignoring issues of diet and mother's access to resources. This project will provide a controlled comparison which will shed light on this issue.