Tzotzil Maya Folkbiology: A Cultural Account of Difference

0216762罗斯这个项目研究文化之间的相互作用，活动相关的专业知识对自然世界，民间生物知识的结构，内容和社区内的分布。研究社区是墨西哥恰帕斯州Zinacantan的Tzotzil Maya镇。本研究将探讨近年来社区内发生的许多经济和社会变化对民间生物知识的分布和内容的影响。将完成几组正式任务，探索有关植物和动物以及当地宗教仪式的知识的内容，组织和分布。此外，PI将从事日常生活的民族志研究，非正式访谈和调查。 研究结果将与先前研究的数据进行比较，以评估变化（任何观察到的关于环境的事实知识的损失将与任何观察到的宗教知识的损失进行比较）。这项研究将有助于我们理解人类群体中认知模型的性质，它们的稳定性和变异性来源。更广泛的影响将包括对当地学生进行社会科学研究方法的培训。

0216762RossThis project studies the interaction between culture, activity-related expertise about the natural world, and the structure, content and intra-community distribution of folk biological knowledge. The study community is the Tzotzil Maya township of Zinacantan, Chiapas, Mexico. The research will explore the effects of the many economic and social changes that have occurred in the community in recent times on the distribution and content of folk biological knowledge. Several sets of formal tasks will be accomplished exploring the content, organization and distribution of knowledge about plants and animals as well as local religious rituals. In addition the PI will engage in ethnographic studies of daily life, informal interviews and surveys. The results will be compared with data from previous studies, to assess the changes (any observed loss of factual knowledge about the environment will be compared to any observed loss of religious knowledge). This research will contribute to our understanding of the nature of cognitive models in human populations, their stability and sources of variability. The wider impacts will include the training of local students in social science research methods.