Torres Strait Foraging and Reproductive Strategies

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This project involves the ethnographic field research of three anthropologists from the University of Washington in Torres Strait, Australia. The goals are to study the link between reproductive strategies and subsistence among a tribal society, the Meriam people, a maritime foraging-horticultural society with minimal cash involvement. The research will test two models: the childcare tradeoffs model which proposes that women's reproductive constraints shape their subsistence strategies, and the social benefits model, which proposes that male subsistence decisions often sacrifice household provisioning in order to enhance status by sharing resources widely or demonstrating prowess and risk-taking. Previous research has suggested that Meriam women choose less productive resources due to risk aversion rather than childcare constraints, while men choose less productive resources because of a seeming preference for greater risk. The methods include generalized participant observation, and detailed monitoring of the choices of women and men foraging with small children in marine habitats. Detailed time-allocation, productivity, and exchange records will be kept. This research is important because it will advance our understanding of the consequences and causes of sexual division of labor through the critical examination of some widely-held theories. The results should illuminate the circumstance which might motivate men to seek a household provisioning strategy rather than a status enhancing one.