Doctoral Dissertation Research: Post-marital residence among the Thwa of northwestern Namibia

犹他州大学博士生莱恩·J·瓦什罗，导师是伊丽莎白·A。Cashdan将调查传统社会中女性希望住在育儿机构附近的愿望如何影响婚后居住和儿童健康。 社会科学家通常通过跨文化比较来分析人类婚后居住模式的全球差异，这种方法没有考虑到群体内的差异。 与此相反，本项目旨在确定组内差异的程度和来源，特别侧重于allocare。 最近的研究表明，妇女从家庭获得的育儿援助是鼓励她们婚后留在家附近的一个因素。 这项研究将在纳米比亚西北部的Thwa人中进行。Thwa人的婚后居住地不固定，儿童和婴儿死亡率很高。 Vashro将从斑马山谷的Thwa营地收集数据。 数据来源包括访谈、人口普查、育儿行为观察和人体测量。这些数据将被用来测试几个假设，包括是否提供照顾者预测婚后居住，以及它是否影响儿童的健康。这个项目将作为第一步，了解个体差异如何影响婚后居住，这将照亮居住模式的社会，缺乏明确界定的婚后居住规则。 了解力量，塑造居住群体内的变化也将谈到更广泛的跨文化模式，在婚后居住。 该项目还将记录一个以前研究不足的群体，并有助于了解影响儿童健康的多种因素。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

University of Utah doctoral student, Layne J. Vashro, supervised by Dr. Elizabeth A. Cashdan, will investigate how women's desire to live near childcare providers affects post-marital residence and child health in traditional societies. Social scientists typically have analyzed the significant worldwide variability in human post-marital residence patterns through cross-cultural comparisons, an approach that does not take into account within group variability. In contrast, this project seeks to identify the degree and sources of within-group variation, focusing on allocare in particular. Recent research suggests that the childcare assistance women receive from their family is an incentive for them to remain close to home after marriage. The research will be conducted among the Thwa of northwestern Namibia. The Thwa practice variable post-marital residence and are subject to high rates of child and infant mortality. Vashro will collect data from Thwa camps in the Zebra Mountain valley. Data sources will include interviews, censuses, observations of childcare behavior, and anthropometric measurements. These data will be used test several hypotheses including whether the availability of care providers predicts post-marital residence and whether it affects child health.This project will act as an initial step towards understanding how individual variation affects post-marital residence, which will illuminate the patterning of residence in societies that lack clearly defined post-marital residence rules. Understanding the forces that shape residence variability within groups will also speak to broader cross-cultural patterns in post-marital residence. The project also will document a previously under-studied group and contribute to understanding the multiple factors that affect child health. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.