RAPID: First contact with Punan Batu hunter-gatherers in Borneo

在更新世，我们的祖先以狩猎采集为生，这种生活方式塑造了我们物种的生物学和社会行为。 因此，对仅存的少数狩猎采集者群体的研究对社会、医学和行为科学具有高度优先地位。大多数研究都集中在少数几个非常著名的非洲群体，特别是南部非洲的科伊桑人和坦桑尼亚的哈扎人，他们被人类学家和大众媒体奉为人类祖先社会的典范。在过去，狩猎采集社会也存在于热带亚洲，但对它们的了解要少得多。亚洲热带雨林的狩猎采集者是否与居住在大草原的非洲人有显著的不同，这是一个悬而未决的问题。发现一个与世隔绝的部落人口是一个独特而极其罕见的事件，可能会激发公众对人类学、生物学和语言学的兴趣。研究小组计划教育科学和非技术受众关于这个群体的人口遗传学，语言和人种学，从而使更广泛的受众参与科学研究。此外，该项目还将加强美国和印度尼西亚科学家之间的合作，并扩大科学界代表性不足的群体的参与。 该RAPID奖支持在印度尼西亚婆罗洲岛收集关键但短暂的数据。婆罗洲是世界第三大岛，拥有最丰富的陆地生物多样性。直到最近，这个岛还是一个叫做普南的狩猎采集者的家园。但是普南人的全职狩猎和采集活动据信在一代人以前就已经结束了，现在大多数剩下的普南人生活在保留地。2017年，印度尼西亚婆罗洲东部地区的普南人当选领导人发现了一个未知的，孤立的118名洞穴居住的普南狩猎采集者。出于对他们福利的担忧，普南领导人请求印度尼西亚研究、技术和高等教育部的一个生物医学研究小组提供援助，其中包括圣达菲研究所的人类学家史蒂夫·兰辛博士。具体而言，普南领导人要求兰辛和一名印度尼西亚研究人员陪同他前往洞穴，评估居民的直接生物医学脆弱性，并确保采取适当的预防措施，保障他们的健康和福利。兰辛和印度尼西亚研究小组将寻求洞普南人的知情同意，进行后续访问，对他们的健康、人口、语言、物质文化和亲属关系进行全面研究，使用兰辛和同事最近出版的许多出版物中描述的方法。现实地说，如果没有NSF的支持，接触很可能很快就会发生，但不是由人类学家和医学研究人员。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

During the Pleistocene, our ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers, a way of life that shaped the biology and social behavior of our species. Consequently the study of the few remaining populations of hunter-gatherers has high priority for the social, medical and behavioral sciences. Most research has focused on a few very well-known African groups, notably the Khoisan peoples of southern Africa and the Hadza of Tanzania, who have been conscripted by anthropologists and the popular media as the model for ancestral human society. In the past, hunter-gatherer societies also existed in tropical Asia, but much less is known about them. It is an open question whether Asian rainforest hunter-gatherers differ in significant ways from the savannah-dwelling Africans. The discovery of an isolated tribal population is an unique and exceedingly rare event, and one that is likely to excite public interest in anthropological, biological, and linguistic science. The research team have plans to educate both scientific and non-technical audiences about the population genetics, language, and ethnography about this group, thereby engaging a wider audience in scientific research. In addition, the project would strengthen collaboration among scientists in the U.S. and Indonesia, and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in the sciences. This RAPID award supports the collection of critical but ephemeral data on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. Borneo is the third largest island in the world, and contains the greatest terrestrial biodiversity. Until recently the island was home to hunter-gatherers called Punan. But full-time hunting and gathering by the Punan is believed to have ended more than a generation ago, and most of the remaining Punan now live in reservations. In 2017 the elected leader of the Punan of the eastern region of Indonesian Borneo discovered an unknown, isolated population of 118 cave-dwelling Punan hunter-gatherers. Concerned about their welfare, the Punan leader requested assistance from a biomedical research team from the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, including anthropologist Dr. Steve Lansing of the Santa Fe Institute. Specifically, the Punan leader requested that Lansing and one Indonesian researcher accompany him to the cave, to assess the immediate biomedical vulnerabilities of the inhabitants, and ensure that appropriate precautions are taken to safeguard their health and welfare. Lansing and the Indonesian research team will seek the informed consent of the Cave Punan for follow-up visits to conduct comprehensive studies of their health, demography, languages, material culture and kinship practices, using methods described in numerous recent publications by Lansing and colleagues. Realistically, without NSF support contact is likely to occur soon, but not by anthropologists and medical researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.