Pilot Study of Foraging In Tanzania

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9976681Marlowe This project investigates the extent of foraging among a forest people of Tanzania about whom little is known. The group to be studied, the Western Hadza, live in a remote area not much connected to the central government or to the tourist influences which are affecting the Hadza who live to the East. Once hunting and gathering is abandoned, one can continue to study the psychology of foragers, so long as the people being studied once foraged and maintain the same attitudes, beliefs and preferences. By studying active foragers, the researcher, a cultural anthropologist from Harvard University, can use quantitative observational methods to learn things about the hunting and gathering niche that can not be learned any other way. He will conduct all day and half day focal follows of men hunting, recording prey encounter and capture rates. He will weigh food acquired before it is distributed, and again before the individual eats the remaining share, and will note the pattern of distribution. In this three-month pilot research the investigator will also conduct a census. Through research on relatively simple economies such as this we can better understand the selection pressures responsible for shaping human behavior. This pilot study will assess the prospects for future research with this group.