Does reliance on kin erode with market integration? A social network perspective

在人类历史的大部分时间里，亲属关系一直是社会结构的基础，而它在组织当代社会方面发挥着更加多变的作用。在不同的背景下，亲属关系在调节物质和经济资源的获取方面发挥着根本作用，激发了社会科学对解释社会和经济系统之间的反馈的长期兴趣。市场一体化是一个过程，涉及从以生存为导向的生活方式向更多以市场为导向的消费和生产为基础的生活方式的转变。这个项目调查了市场整合对社会结构的影响，特别是关注社会支持网络中亲属密度的变化。该项目培训一名人类学研究生，在文化人类学方面进行实证、科学数据收集和分析。此外，该项目通过出版物、合作画廊和学术和非学术场所的讲座广泛分享研究结果，促进公众对人类社会性科学的理解。本研究检验的核心假设是，随着市场一体化程度的提高，个人网络中的亲属关系受到侵蚀。这项研究使用了一个混合理论框架，灵感来自进化文化人类学，并采用定性和定量相结合的方法来理解在一个从农业基地向更牢固地植根于区域市场的社会中，与市场一体化相关的活动如何影响亲属和非亲属之间的社会支持网络。这项研究包括一项为期一年的人种学研究，包括社交网络访谈、社区地图绘制、半结构化访谈、社会人口调查问卷和人体测量评估，以获得将经济、社会和健康变量与不同程度的市场参与联系起来的数据。这些系统收集的数据将丰富对亲属关系何时、如何以及为什么可能破裂以及这对社会关系和福利产生什么后果的理解。这一裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Kinship has been the basis of social structure for most of human history whereas it plays a more variable role in organizing contemporary societies. Across settings, kinship plays a fundamental role in regulating access to material and economic resources, inspiring long-held interest across the social sciences in explaining the feedback between social and economic systems. Market integration is a process that involves a transition from subsistence-oriented lifestyles to ones based more heavily on market-oriented consumption and production. This project investigates the effects of market integration on social structure, specifically focusing on variation in the density of kin in social support networks. The project trains an anthropological graduate student in empirical, scientific data collection and analysis in cultural anthropology. Additionally, the project promotes public understanding of the science of human sociality by broad sharing of findings through publications, collaborative galleries, and lectures in academic and non-academic venues.The core hypothesis tested in this research is that kinship ties in personal networks erode under increasing levels of market integration. The research uses a hybrid theoretical framework, inspired by evolutionary cultural anthropology, and mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to understand how market-integration-related activities affect social support networks among kin and non-kin in a society that is transitioning from an agricultural base to one more strongly rooted in regional markets. The research includes a year-long ethnographic study involving social network interviews, community mapping, semi-structured interviews, socio-demographic questionnaires, and anthropometric assessments to obtain data that links economic, social, and health variables in contexts with varying degrees of market engagement. These systematically collected data will enrich the understanding of when, how, and why kinship relationships may break down and what consequences this has on social relationships and welfare.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.