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植物和动物生物多样性，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居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，厄瓜多尔的森林砍伐率在整个亚马逊流域最高。 这些进程还导致土著居民越来越多地参与市场经济，产生了深刻的经济、卫生和文化影响。 查佩尔山的北卡罗来纳州大学的植物群卢博士和马克·V·索伦森博士将对厄瓜多尔东北部五个亚马逊土著人口的跨文化样本进行研究，探讨日益融入市场的健康后果。 该研究将（1）调查健康的变化，（2）研究市场一体化通过互惠网络、流动性、饮食以及获得和使用医疗保健影响健康的机制。 该项目整合了生态，文化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，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。 该项目是为数不多的对土著经济和健康进行跨文化和跨学科研究的项目之一。 它建立在该区域的长期合作和比较研究的基础上，并在将市场一体化的经验数据与生物文化成果联系起来的基础上开发了一个模型。从理论上讲，这项研究进一步了解文化行为，社会经济背景和健康之间的联系，对生物文化弹性，人类行为生态学和生活史理论的影响。 这一项目的更广泛影响将体现在它与促进土著人民福祉、与决策者直接进行公众沟通以及促进厄瓜多尔和美国学生的教育和培训的相关性。

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.