Dissertaion Research: Political Ecology of Land Use in Suriname

这个项目涉及佛罗里达大学人类学专业的一名学生的论文研究，研究苏里南小规模金矿开采的家庭层面的影响。该项目将重点关注该国内陆农村地区的马龙人和美洲印第安人，调查为什么有些人从事采矿工作，有些人不从事采矿工作，以及采矿对村庄农业系统和妇女劳动的影响。该项目将使用参与者观察和当地调查的人种学方法，检验关于资本和社会资源在促进进入采矿营地方面的作用、家庭男性采矿劳动与女性农业劳动负相关、以及种族歧视、教育和现金收入等社会资本变量影响采矿参与的假设。学生还将采访来自非政府组织、政府和跨国公司的矿业经济参与者，以了解农村采矿业的更广泛背景。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它增加了我们对世界这一重要区域的了解，并促进了我们对热带农村个人和家庭决策过程的理解。对于关注农村发展和热带森林砍伐的政策制定者来说，更好地了解家庭为什么从事非农工作以及这种工作对农业实践的影响是重要的。

This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Florida, studying the household-level effects of small-scale gold mining in Suriname. Focusing on Maroon as well as Amerindian populations in the rural interior of the country, the project will investigate why some men work at mining and some do not, and the effects of mining on the agricultural system of the villages and on the labor of women. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and local surveys the project will test hypotheses about the role of capital and social resources in facilitating access to mining camps, that the household males' labor in mining inversely correlates with females' labor in farming, and that social capital variables of ethnic discrimination, education and cash income affect mining involvement. The student will also interview participants in the mining economy from NGOs, the government and multinational corporations to understand the wider contexts of the rural mining industry. This research is important because it increases our knowledge of this important region of the world, as well as advances our understanding of the decision making processes of rural tropical individuals and households. Improved understanding of why households engage in off-farm work and the impacts of that work on agricultural practices is important to policy makers concerned about rural development and tropical deforestation.