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

加州大学戴维斯分校的博士生Ryan N. Schacht在Monique Borgerhoff Mulder博士的指导下，将对影响人类性别角色形成的因素进行研究。这项研究是由最近关于性别的理论和实证研究推动的，这些研究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主要来自于对西方人群进行的研究。因此，本项目关注的是非西方国家正在经历快速社会经济变化的群体。这项研究将在圭亚那鲁普努尼地区的两个马库什人社区进行。研究方法将包括半结构化和结构化访谈。收集马库士文化和社会组织方面的数据；人口与经济；之前的研究人员发现，这些品质会影响择偶和婚姻的可行性。这些数据将在两个社区之间进行比较，以检验来自进化论的假设，即社会舞台的特征，特别是社区中育龄个体的性别比和产生性别比的社会经济因素，如何影响性行为、择偶、亲代投资和夫妻关系。这项工作具有广泛的理论意义，因为它将为社会科学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天性本质化，并关注二元性别策略。此外，这项研究的结果可能为预防艾滋病毒和减少家庭暴力的政策提供信息。资助这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

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.