Doctoral Dissertation Research: Parental Investment, Socioecological Variation, and Family Formation: Comparative Cases from Guyana

加州大学戴维斯分校博士生瑞安·N.沙赫特，由莫尼克Borgerhoff穆德博士监督，将进行影响人类性别角色形成的因素的研究。这项研究是由最近关于性别的理论和实证工作推动的，这些工作挑战了关于男性和女性模式行为的传统假设。许多关于性别角色的假设来自主要对西方人口进行的研究。因此，本项目的重点是一个正在经历快速社会经济变化的非西方群体。这项研究将在圭亚那鲁普努尼地区的两个Makushi人社区进行。研究方法包括半结构化和结构化访谈。 将收集有关Makushi文化和社会组织的数据;人口统计学和经济学;以及以前的研究人员发现的影响择偶和婚姻可行性的品质。这些数据将在两个社区之间进行比较，以检验进化理论中关于社会竞技场特征的假设，特别是社区中育龄个体的性别比例以及产生性别比例的社会经济因素，如何影响性行为，择偶，父母投资和婚姻关系。 这项工作具有广泛的理论意义，因为它将为社会科学中的性别理论家的论点提供经验基础，这些理论家呼吁拒绝将男性或女性本质化以及关注二元性别策略。此外，这项研究的结果可以为预防艾滋病毒和减轻家庭暴力的政策提供信息。资助这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

University of California at Davis doctoral student, Ryan N. Schacht, supervised by Dr. Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, will undertake research on factors that affect the formation of human gender roles. The research is driven by recent theoretical and empirical work on gender that challenges conventional assumptions regarding male and female patterned behavior. Many of the assumptions about gender roles derive from research conducted primarily on Western populations. Therefore, this project focuses on a non-Western group undergoing rapid socioeconomic change. The research will be conducted in two communities of Makushi people in the Rupununi region of Guyana. Research methods will include both semi-structured and structured interviewing. Data will be collected on Makushi culture and social organization; demographics and economics; and qualities that previous researchers have have found affect mate selection and marriage viability. These data will be compared across the two communities to test hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory on how features of the social arena, specifically the sex ratio of reproductive-aged individuals in the community and the socioeconomic factors that produce the sex ratio, affect sexual behavior, mate choosiness, parental investment, and conjugal bonds. This work has broad theoretical significance because it will provide an empirical basis for arguments by gender theorists across the social sciences who call for a rejection of essentializing masculine or feminine natures as well as the focus on binary gender strategies. Additionally, the results of this research may inform policy for HIV prevention and mitigation of domestic violence. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.