Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality in Rural Zambia

研究生史蒂文科尔，由博士监督艾薇L。派克将研究赞比亚农村收入不平等的原因和后果。这项研究将侧重于赞比亚农村东部省的玉米种植者，在那里，获得农业投入的机会不同，影响到家庭的粮食安全和收入水平。 将社会不平等与生物变异模式联系起来的研究在生物文化人类学中越来越普遍。然而，大部分的研究特权的政治经济背景下，没有考虑他们是如何单独调解。以健康为测试案例，科尔将研究社会心理压力在解释收入不平等的可变个人后果中的作用。研究人员将使用混合方法进行为期12个月的实地研究。他将随机选择三个研究村庄，收集基本人口数据，以创建一个抽样框架，使他能够随机选择60个家庭。他将在研究过程中对家庭成员的健康状况进行两次调查（以捕捉季节性变化），收集人体测量，感知健康，感知压力，收入和社会凝聚力数据。有关家庭收入的信息还将用于确定每个村庄的基尼系数（以评估收入分配），这是另一种衡量可变感知压力的指标。 他将对村民进行半结构化访谈，内容包括农业政策、劳动实践、家庭间劳动力转移以及对收入差距扩大的情绪反应。 将对这些数据进行统计分析，以阐明赞比亚农村收入不平等的一些原因和后果。 这项研究具有创新性，因为它将是采用密集的人类学研究方法来测试发展中国家收入不平等与个人层面后果之间的动态关系的首批研究之一。 这项研究将有助于改善政策，以改善发展中国家农村地区的身心健康状况。 这项研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Steven Cole, supervised by Dr. Ivy L. Pike, will examine the causes and consequences of income inequality in rural Zambia. The research will focus on a population of maize growers in rural Eastern Province, Zambia, where differential access to farming inputs impacts a household's food security and income level. Research that links social inequalities and patterns of biological variation is increasingly common in bio-cultural anthropology. However, much of this research privileges political-economic contexts without considering how they are individually mediated. Using health as a test case, Cole will examine the role of psychosocial stress in explaining the variable individual consequences of income inequality. The researcher will carry out twelve months of field research using a mixed-methods approach. He will randomly select three study villages and gather basic population data to create a sampling frame to allow him to select a random sample of 60 households. He will survey the health status of household members twice over the course of the study (to capture seasonal variability), gathering anthropometric, perceived health, perceived stress, income, and social cohesion data. The information on household income also will be used to determine each village's Gini coefficient (to assess income distribution), another measure of variable perceived stress. He will conduct semi-structured interviews with villagers on agricultural policies, labor practices, inter-household labor transfers, and emotional responses to the widening of the income gap. These data will be analyzed statistically to elucidate some of the causes and consequences of income inequality in rural Zambia. The research is innovative because it will be one of the first studies to employ intensive anthropological research methods to test the dynamic relationship between income inequality and individual-level consequences in a developing country context. The research will contribute to improved policy to improve overall health, both physical and mental, in rural areas in developing countries. The research will also contribute to the education of a social scientist.