A Cross-Cultural Study of Integration to the Market and Indigenous Health in the Ecuadorian Amazon

厄瓜多尔的亚马逊拥有非凡的动植物生物多样性，在全球气候过程和碳循环中发挥着关键作用，并支持土著和传统森林人民的物质和文化生存。然而，由于石油开采、殖民化、基础设施发展、城市化以及农业和畜牧业的土地清理，自1990年以来，厄瓜多尔在整个亚马逊盆地的森林砍伐率最高。这些进程还导致土著居民越来越多地参与市场经济，对经济、健康和文化产生深远影响。北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的Flora Lu博士和Mark V. Sorensen博士将对厄瓜多尔东北部五个亚马逊原住民的跨文化样本进行研究，研究日益融入市场对健康的影响。本研究将(1)调查健康的变化，(2)通过互惠网络、流动性、饮食和医疗保健的获取和使用来检验市场一体化影响健康的机制。该项目整合了生态人类学、文化人类学和生物人类学的方法。采用的研究方法包括焦点小组、文化领域分析、饮食摄入访谈和时间分配研究，以及人体测量评估和当前感染、贫血和维生素A状态的生物标志物。这个项目是土著经济学和保健方面为数不多的跨文化和跨学科研究之一。它建立在该地区长期合作和比较研究的基础上，并开发了一个基于将市场整合的经验数据与生物文化成果联系起来的模型。从理论上讲，本研究进一步了解了文化行为、社会经济背景和健康之间的联系，并对生物文化弹性、人类行为生态学和生活史理论产生了影响。该项目的更广泛影响将体现在促进土著居民福祉、直接与决策者沟通、促进厄瓜多尔和美国学生的教育和培训等方面。

Ecuador's Amazon houses extraordinary levels of plant and animal biodiversity, plays a key role in global climate processes and carbon cycles, and supports the physical and cultural survival of indigenous and traditional forest people. However, because of petroleum exploitation, colonization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and land clearing for agriculture and cattle ranching, since 1990, Ecuador has had the highest rate of deforestation in the entire Amazon Basin. These processes also have led indigenous populations to become increasingly involved in the market economy, with profound economic, health, and cultural implications. Dr. Flora Lu and Dr. Mark V. Sorensen, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will undertake research on the health consequences of increasing integration to the market among a cross-cultural sample of five native Amazonian populations of northeastern Ecuador. The research will (1) investigate variation in health, and (2) examine the mechanisms through which market integration influences health through reciprocity networks, mobility, diet, and access to and use of medical care. The project integrates methodologies from ecological, cultural, and biological anthropology. Research methods to be employed include focus groups, cultural domain analysis, dietary intake interviews, and time allocation studies, as well as anthropometric assessment and biomarkers of current infection, anemia, and vitamin A status. This project is one of the few cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies of indigenous economics and health. It builds on long-term collaborative and comparative research in the region and develops a model based on linking empirical data on market integration with biocultural outcomes. Theoretically, this research furthers understanding of the connections between cultural behavior, socioeconomic context, and health, with implications for biocultural resilience, human behavioral ecology, and life history theory. The broader impacts of this project will be seen in its relevance to promotion of indigenous well-being, direct public communication to policymakers, and promotion of education and training of Ecuadorian and United States students.