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

这个项目涉及文化和生物人类学家 研究厄瓜多尔儿童生长差异的原因。 两个社区的家庭，一个是更传统的农业 一个是高地社区，另一个是经济作物 将对低地的社区进行研究。 方法 包括参与者观察、调查、正式访谈， 定期测量的增长，疾病和活动的样本， 家庭 要检验的假设是，传统的 农业生产的孩子比那些 更“现代”，经济作物制度，通过提供更广泛的 食物种类繁多，让母亲有更多的自主权， 控制资源。 这项研究很重要，因为儿童健康问题是 在发展中国家至关重要， 强调“现代”经济作物农业可能会损害 家庭的整体健康，忽视饮食问题， 母亲的资源。 该项目将提供一个 控制比较，这将揭示这个问题。

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.