Dissertation Research: Testing Theories of Collective Action in Micronesia

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This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of New Mexico. The project involves testing hypotheses about cooperative work in a small-scale society in Micronesia. The student hypotheses that people will work more, give more reciprocal gifts, and attend to the children of co-workers more in situations of cooperative labor when they require the future cooperation of others Using quantitative and qualitative ethnographic methods the student will measure the labor input of workers in fishing and vegetable harvesting as well as various measures of yields and sharing to test these hypotheses, which will be used to advance evolutionary theory about hunter-gathers in small bands. This research is valuable because it will add to the trained scientific manpower of the US in this important area of the world, and will add to our basic knowledge of the causes and consequences of cooperative work in small societies.