Demography and Ecology of the Tjimba of Northwest Namibia

人类在历史上的绝大多数时间里都是觅食者，但今天很少有人仍然如此。 人们对向农耕和畜牧业的转变并不十分了解，主要是因为在这一转变过程中观察到的群体很少。 纳米比亚西北部的津巴提供了为数不多的机会之一。 这位研究人员在2004年秋天进行的一项为期四个月的试点研究表明，一个多世纪以来，津巴人一直在“从山上下来”，放弃觅食，融入其他民族。现在，农业和畜牧业已经渗透到Tjimba家园，为Tjimba人提供了新的经济选择。本项目将研究采用这些新的生存策略的原因和后果，特别关注生殖成功，这是人类进化生态学研究的一个重要领域。一个人如何谋生影响到他们找到配偶以及成功生育和抚养子女的能力。因此，那些选择放弃觅食的古代伪造者可能正在做出一个重要的战略选择。 该项目将首先对津巴人进行第一次系统的人口普查，然后进行有关家谱、生殖史和生存行为的采访。 此外，还将对用于儿童保育的资源使用情况和时间进行观察，以了解这些情况如何随情况而变化。 该项目将扩展我们对当代觅食者之间经济变化和人口变化之间关系的理解，这也将有助于我们理解数千年前人类首次放弃觅食而选择久坐不动的生活方式时所涉及的过程。该项目还将使津巴人本身以及试图帮助他们的决策者和援助机构受益，因为当代津巴人的情况和健康需求基本上是未知的。

Humans were foragers for the vast majority of our history but few remain so today. The switch to farming and pastoralism is not well understood, primarily because few groups have been observed in the midst of this transition. The Tjimba of northwestern Namibia offer one of the few remaining opportunities. A four-month pilot study by this researcher in the fall of 2004 showed that Tjimba have been 'coming down from the mountains' for more than a century, abandoning foraging and integrating into other ethnic groups. Now, farming and cattle-herding have penetrated up into the Tjimba homeland, offering new economic alternatives where the Tjimba live. This project will examine the causes and consequences of adopting these new subsistence strategies with a particular focus on reproductive success, an important area of research in human evolutionary ecology. How individuals make their living affects their ability to find a spouse and to successfully have and raise children. Thus those ancient forgers who chose to abandon foraging may have been making an important strategic choice. The project will start with the first systematic census of the Tjimba, followed by interviews about genealogy, reproductive history, and subsistence behavior. This will be supplemented by observations of resource use and time devoted to childcare to see how these vary with circumstances. The project will extend our understanding of the relation between economic shifts and demographic changes among contemporay foragers, which will also contribute to our understanding of the processes involved when humans first abandoned foraging for more sedentary life styles millenia ago. The project also will benefit the Tjimba themselves, as well as policy makers and aid agencies trying to assist them, because the circumstances and health needs of the contemporary Tjimba are largely unknown.