Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shifting co-residence, sharing, and contact networks in a transitioning hunter-gatherer society

人类群体的规模和组成在不同社会之间差别很大，从狩猎采集者的小群体到现代大城市的庞大社会网络。为了理解这种极端差异的起源，这个博士论文项目将研究一个小规模的社会，这个社会目前正在从游牧狩猎和采集的生活转变为一个专注于定居农业的生活。该项目将使用创新的传感器技术来追踪个人的活动，以重建社会网络，并了解这些网络与人口统计、食物共享和居住模式之间的关系。这项研究有望揭示与近亲生活的历史重要性，以及农业的兴起如何影响人类的社会互动，特别是资源和信息的交换。社会网络对健康和疾病传播也有重要影响，本研究旨在确定社会网络结构如何减轻疾病易感性。该项目还将为现场和研究助理提供学生研究和培训机会，并将包括在本国机构和现场的科学传播和推广活动。共同居住的模式决定了哪些个体合作、竞争或共享信息和资源。本研究将调查影响马来西亚Batek小规模狩猎采集社会共同居住模式和个体间互动的机制，对他们来说，合作是生存的关键。联合项目将收集永久定居点和森林营地的详细人口统计、共同居住和食物共享数据，并将这些数据与20世纪70年代中期收集的关于同一人口的丰富历史数据集相结合进行分析。此外，该项目将包括使用传感器技术来监测个人之间的近距离互动，并重建社会网络。考虑到巴泰克人越来越多的定居化，再加上男性主导的性别关系的转变，具体的预测包括(i)共同居民之间的亲缘关系增加，（ii）亲属偏见和互惠分享互动的增加，以及（iii）更广泛但分布不均匀的联系网络。该项目建立在最近对人类共同居住模式的综合研究的基础上，并为解释这些模式的新理论模型提供了第一个实证检验。该项目的研究结果将为评估定居化对基本人类互动模式的影响以及人类社会组织如何调节信息和疾病的传播提供重要的基线。

The size and composition of human groups varies widely between societies, from the small bands of hunter-gatherers to the massive social networks of modern mega-cities. To understand the origins of this extreme variation, this doctoral dissertation project will study a small-scale society that is currently shifting from a life of nomadic hunting and gathering to one focused on sedentary agriculture. The co-PI will use innovative sensor technology to track the movements of individuals in order to reconstruct social networks and understand how those networks are related to demographics, food sharing, and residence patterns. This study is expected to shed light on the historical importance of living with close relatives and how the rise of agriculture has influenced human social interactions, especially the exchange of resources and information. Social networks also have major implications for health and the spread of disease, and this research aims to identify how the structure of social networks might mitigate disease susceptibility. This project will also provide student research and training opportunities for field and research assistants, and will include science communication and outreach activities at the home institution and the field site. Patterns of co-residence determine which individuals cooperate, compete, or share information and resources. This research will investigate the mechanisms that influence co-residence patterns and inter-individual interactions in a small-scale hunter-gatherer society, the Batek of Malaysia, for whom cooperation is critical for survival. The co-PI will collect detailed demographic, co-residence, and food sharing data in permanent settlements and forest camps, and analyze these data in conjunction with a rich historical dataset collected in the mid-1970s on the same population. In addition, the project will include the use of sensor technology to monitor proximity interactions among individuals and reconstruct social networks. Given the increasing sedentarization of the Batek, coupled with a shift towards male-dominated gender relations, specific predictions include (i) an increase in relatedness among co-residents, (ii) an increase in kin-biased and reciprocal sharing interactions, and (iii) broader but less evenly distributed contact networks. This project builds on a recent synthesis of research on human co-residence patterns, and provides the first empirical test of a new theoretical model proposed to explain these patterns. Findings from this project will provide an important baseline for evaluating the effect of sedentarization on fundamental human interaction patterns and how human social organization mediates the spread of information and disease.