Dissertation Research: Effects of Market Economies on Ethnobotanical Knowledge Among Tsimane Communities in the Bolivan Amazon

9904318 Schmink/Garcia这个项目支持佛罗里达大学人类学专业的一名学生的论文研究，研究玻利维亚低地美洲印第安人的民族植物学知识。学生将研究市场活动对民族植物学知识分布的影响，假设知识在更多地接触市场的社区中将不那么广泛地共享，因为经济活动更专业化，植物的使用更少。这名学生将在三个不同市场敞口的齐马尼印第安人社区测试这一想法。有关民族植物学知识的数据将通过三合会、排名和选择题测试来收集。此外，学生将在一年内对相同的个人进行两周一次的植物使用访谈、月度收入调查和季度财富调查，以建立一组与知识相关的重要变量的面板数据。文化共识分析将被用来产生民族植物学知识一致性的分数，然后(分数)将被用作因变量，以经济、社会和人口变量进行多变量分析。这项研究将是将认知结果与经济变量联系起来的第一个严格的量化研究之一。此外，该项目还支持培训一名年轻的社会科学家，并促进我们对世界这一重要领域的了解。

9904318Schmink / Garcia This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Florida, studying the ethnobotanical knowledge of Amerindians in the Bolivian lowlands. The student will examine the influence of market activity on the distribution of ethnobotanical knowledge, hypothesizing that knowledge will be less widely shared in communities more exposed to the market because of greater specialization in economic activities and lesser use of plants. The student will test the idea in three Tsimane Indian communities with different degrees of market exposure. Data on ethnobotanical knowledge will be collected through triads, rank order and multiple-choice tests. In addition the student will carry out biweekly interviews of plant use, monthly income surveys, and quarterly wealth surveys of the same individuals over a year to build a panel set of data on important variables that covary with knowledge. Cultural consensus analysis will be used to create scores on agreement on ethnobotanical knowledge, which (scores) will then be used as dependent variables to run multivariate analysis with economic, social and demographic variables. This research will be one of the first rigorous quantitative research to link cognitive outcomes with economic variables. In addition the project supports the training of a young social scientist, and advances our knowledge of this important area of the world.