Dissertation Research: Risk and Diversification in a Mixed Foraging and Agropastoral Market Economy in Southwestern Madagascar

社会科学家通常以一种主要的生存方式来划分社会的经济生活，如觅食、农业、畜牧、小作坊等。北卡罗莱纳大学的一名文化人类学学生的论文研究项目将研究马达加斯加的狩猎采集者如何通过一系列不同的经济和生态决策来满足他们的生存和消费需求。虽然该社会的所有成员都在一定程度上进行狩猎和采集，但许多家庭也保持着多样化的投资组合，包括种植玉米和块茎、放牧牛羊、捕鱼和制造垫子和篮子以供出售。在这一系列可能性中，一个特定的家庭面临着各种选择，在维持生计和现金之间，在不同环境区域的活动中，在即时和延迟回报之间，在男人、女人和儿童之间，以及在不同的市场中。该项目将研究一组家庭的经济活动和决策，以了解如何利用基本的技术工具包在不可预测的环境中管理风险。了解这种多样化经济中的战略对于理解经济和文化变革的一般过程至关重要，无论这些变革是发生在农业的起源，还是发生在农村人口向全球市场经济的持续转型中。

Social scientists ordinarily classify the economic life of communities by a dominant mode of subsistence, such as foraging, agriculture, pastoralism, petty manufacture, etc. This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropology student at the University of North Carolina will study how hunter-gatherers of Madagascar meet their needs for subsistence and consumer gods thorough a diverse array of economic and ecological decisions. While all the members of the society hunt and gather to some extent, many households also maintain a diverse portfolio of maize and tuber cultivation, cattle and goat herding, fishing and manufacturing of mats and baskets for sale. Within this suite of possibilities a particular household is faced with options, between subsistence and cash, activities in different environmental zones, immediate and delayed returns, men, women and children's labor, and among diverse markets. This project will study the economic activities and decisions of a set of households in order to understand how risk is managed to survive in an unpredictable environment with a rudimentary technological tool kit. Understanding strategies within such a diverse economy is vital for understanding the general processes of economic and cultural change, whether they occur at the origins of agriculture or in the ongoing transition of small, rural populations into the global market economy.