EAGER: Developing Measures of Cultural Variation and Change in the Faroe Islands

EAGER：制定法罗群岛文化变异和变革的措施

• 批准号: 0946580
• 负责人: Richard Mcelreath
• 金额: $ 2.34万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0946580&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Developing; Measures; Cultural; Variation

Dr. Richard Mcelreath (University of California - Davis) will use this Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research to conduct preliminary research in the Faroe Islands to refine context-specific measures of cultural diversity. These measures are needed in order to describe patterns of variation to test different theoretical models of cultural dynamics underlying how human beings learn and adapt to new conditions. The Faroe Islands present a natural experiment in cultural diversification. The people of the Faroe are ethnically homogenous but internally diverse, exhibiting variation among both villages and islands. Accurately sampling this diversity at the individual level, in addition to individual social networks, will allow for the testing of different dynamic models of cultural processes. Exploratory domains of variation to be sampled on this project include dialect, political beliefs, ecological beliefs, and health-relevant beliefs. Over two months of field research, the researcher will conduct initial sampling, translation, and validation of interview and dialect recording. The initial samples will allow estimation of amounts of variation, which will help determine later larger sampling strategies. In addition, individual two-degree social networks will be collected, to characterize the immediate social influences of each informant. Dialect variation will be characterized with vowel formants. Whether in the Faroe Islands or elsewhere, the dynamics of cultural diversity depend in part on how individuals learn and how society is structured. Learning strategies influence the acquisition of new information and beliefs, biasing from whom people learn and how social and individual experience interact. Social structure, at the small scale, influences the diversity of behavior that is presented to each individual, and, at the large scale, it influences rates of mixing among diverse local cultures. Theories that combine different kinds of learning and social structure can produce a wide array of cultural dynamics. Making these models empirically relevant requires estimates of the strengths of different learning biases and demographic rates. This research will contribute to a broadly relevant body of theory, showing how it can be applied to specific ethnographic contexts.

Richard Mcelreath博士（加州-戴维斯大学）将利用这一探索性研究早期概念赠款在法罗群岛进行初步研究，以完善针对具体情况的文化多样性措施。这些措施是必要的，以描述模式的变化，以测试不同的理论模型的文化动态的基础上，人类如何学习和适应新的条件。法罗群岛是文化多样化的自然实验。法罗群岛的人民在种族上是同质的，但内部多样，在村庄和岛屿之间表现出差异。除了个别的社交网络之外，在个人层面上对这种多样性进行准确抽样，将有助于检验文化进程的不同动态模式。在这个项目中要取样的变异的探索领域包括方言，政治信仰，生态信仰和健康相关的信仰。在两个多月的实地调查中，研究人员将进行初步抽样、翻译、验证访谈和方言录音。初始样本将允许估计变异量，这将有助于确定以后更大的采样策略。此外，还将收集个人的二度社交网络，以表征每个受访者的直接社会影响。方言的变化将以元音共振峰为特征。无论是在法罗群岛还是在其他地方，文化多样性的动态部分取决于个人如何学习和社会如何构建。学习策略影响新信息和信念的获取，影响人们向谁学习以及社会和个人经验如何相互作用。社会结构在小规模上影响着每个人行为的多样性，而在大规模上，它影响着不同当地文化之间的混合率。联合收割机将不同种类的学习和社会结构结合起来的理论可以产生广泛的文化动力。要使这些模型具有经验相关性，需要估计不同学习偏差和人口统计率的强度。这项研究将为广泛相关的理论体系做出贡献，展示如何将其应用于特定的民族志背景。