CAREER: Life history transitions among the Toba in northern Argentina

人类生命史的特点是单胎，后代多，成熟晚，生育间隔相对较短，生殖后寿命长。在人类进化过程中，童年和青春期作为新的生活史阶段被添加到社会性哺乳动物的特征生活史中。从一个生活史阶段过渡到下一个生活史阶段，例如从婴儿期到儿童期或从生殖期到生殖期后，是一种生理上的挑战，可以被概念化为一种权衡。该项目评估了潜在关键生活史转变的生物文化变量之间的相互作用，并确定和描述了所涉及的权衡。该项目在阿根廷福尔摩沙省的一个土著社区（Toba）进行。收集生物学和人种学数据来评估三个生活史转变的躯体、发育、文化和激素相关性：婴儿期-儿童期、青春期和更年期。自1997年以来收集的纵向人体测量和人口统计数据与新的定量和定性信息相结合，以实现以下目标：1)通过连续五年每年收集全村范围内的人体测量和生活史事件数据来扩展纵向数据库；2)利用儿童生长轨迹、发育、营养和健康数据探索从出生到完全断奶的过渡；3)通过分析生长、成熟、健康和激素变化的数据来表征女孩的青春期转变；4)通过分析女性生殖生命末期的人体测量、健康和激素变化数据来描述更年期过渡的特征。人种学数据将为多巴人这些转变的文化意义以及这种意义如何与生物过程相互作用提供重要信息。这项研究的结果将直接对进化发育生物学、老龄化生物人口统计学和临床医学的问题作出贡献，因为它与儿童生长和妇女衰老的模式特别相关。该项目还通过直接参与研究活动，促进美国和阿根廷本科生和研究生，特别是妇女和少数民族的科学教育。

Human life history is characterized by single births, large offspring, delayed maturation, relatively short inter-birth intervals, and a long post-reproductive lifespan. During human evolution, childhood and adolescence were added as new life history phases to the characteristic life history of social mammals. The transition from one life history phase to the next, e.g. from infancy to childhood or from reproductive to post-reproductive life, represents a physiological challenge that can be conceptualized as a trade-off. This project evaluates the interaction among biocultural variables underlying key life history transitions and identifies and describes the implicated trade-offs. The project takes place in an indigenous community (the Toba) in the province of Formosa, Argentina. Biological and ethnographic data are collected to evaluate the somatic, developmental, cultural, and hormonal correlates of three life history transitions: infancy-childhood, puberty, and menopause. Longitudinal anthropometric and demographic data collected since 1997 are combined with new quantitative and qualitative information to achieve the following objectives: 1) extending the longitudinal database by collecting village-wide anthropometric and life history event data annually for five years; 2) exploring the transition from birth to complete weaning using data on children's growth trajectories, development, nutrition, and health; 3) characterizing the pubertal transition in girls by analyzing data on growth, maturation, health, and hormonal changes; and 4) characterizing the menopausal transition by analyzing data on anthropometric, health, and hormonal changes at the end of women's reproductive life. Ethnographic data will provide crucial information on the cultural meaning of these transitions for the Toba and how this meaning interacts with biological processes.Results from this research will contribute directly to issues of evolutionary development biology, the biodemography of aging, and clinical medicine, as it relates specifically to patterns of child growth and women's aging. The project also promotes education in science for U.S. and Argentine undergraduate and graduate students, particularly women and minorities through direct participation in research activities.