Torres Strait Foraging and Reproductive Strategies

该项目涉及来自华盛顿大学的三位人类学家在澳大利亚托雷斯海峡的民族志实地研究。 其目标是研究一个部落社会、Meriam人、一个以海洋觅食-园艺为生的社会，其现金投入最少，生殖战略与生存之间的联系。 这项研究将测试两个模型：儿童保育权衡模型，该模型提出，妇女的生殖限制塑造了她们的生存战略，社会福利模型，该模型提出，男性的生存决定往往牺牲家庭供应，以提高地位，广泛分享资源或展示实力和冒险。 以前的研究表明，梅里亚姆妇女选择生产力较低的资源，由于风险厌恶，而不是儿童保育的限制，而男性选择生产力较低的资源，因为似乎偏好更大的风险。 这些方法包括一般参与观察，并详细监测妇女和男子觅食的选择与幼儿在海洋栖息地。 详细的时间分配、生产率和交换记录将被保存。 这项研究很重要，因为它将通过对一些广泛持有的理论的批判性检验，促进我们对性别分工的后果和原因的理解。 研究结果应阐明的情况下，可能会促使男子寻求家庭供应战略，而不是一个地位提高。

This project involves the ethnographic field research of three anthropologists from the University of Washington in Torres Strait, Australia. The goals are to study the link between reproductive strategies and subsistence among a tribal society, the Meriam people, a maritime foraging-horticultural society with minimal cash involvement. The research will test two models: the childcare tradeoffs model which proposes that women's reproductive constraints shape their subsistence strategies, and the social benefits model, which proposes that male subsistence decisions often sacrifice household provisioning in order to enhance status by sharing resources widely or demonstrating prowess and risk-taking. Previous research has suggested that Meriam women choose less productive resources due to risk aversion rather than childcare constraints, while men choose less productive resources because of a seeming preference for greater risk. The methods include generalized participant observation, and detailed monitoring of the choices of women and men foraging with small children in marine habitats. Detailed time-allocation, productivity, and exchange records will be kept. This research is important because it will advance our understanding of the consequences and causes of sexual division of labor through the critical examination of some widely-held theories. The results should illuminate the circumstance which might motivate men to seek a household provisioning strategy rather than a status enhancing one.