Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Wealth and Markets on Use and Knowledge of Brazilian Amazon

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0109925Schmink / Wallace This dissertation research project in cultural anthropology studies the effects of markets and household wealth on the extraction of resources from the tropical forest in the Brazilian Amazon. Combining theories and methods from microeconomics, economic anthropology and cognitive anthropology, the student will test hypotheses relating household wealth, income, extractive activities, market integration, and knowledge of forest resources among a sample of rubber tappers in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve of Acre, Brazil. Although previous studies examined the effects of wealth and markets on household livelihood strategies, this project advances our understanding by studying these factors in an extractive reserve, where livelihood strategies are limited; it also advances studies in cognitive anthropology by relating intra-cultural variation in rubber tapper knowledge of forest resources to the economic factors that contribute to shape livelihood strategies. The project will examine changes over time, comparing research findings from 1996 with current data, to provide policymakers a yardstick for measuring change in the reserve. This new knowledge will be valuable for creating policy in other tropical forest protected areas. The project also advances our knowledge about this important region of the world, and contributes to the training of a young social scientist.