Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Wealth and Markets on Use and Knowledge of Brazilian Amazon

这篇文化人类学的论文研究项目研究了市场和家庭财富对巴西亚马逊热带森林资源开采的影响。结合微观经济学、经济人类学和认知人类学的理论和方法，学生将在巴西阿克里奇科门德斯采掘保护区的橡胶采集者样本中测试有关家庭财富、收入、采掘活动、市场整合和森林资源知识的假设。虽然以前的研究考察了财富和市场对家庭生计策略的影响，但本项目通过在生计策略有限的采掘储备中研究这些因素，促进了我们的理解；它还通过将橡胶采伐者对森林资源知识的文化内差异与有助于形成生计战略的经济因素联系起来，推进了认知人类学的研究。该项目将审查随着时间的变化，将1996年的研究结果与目前的数据进行比较，为决策者提供衡量保护区变化的标准。这一新知识将对其他热带森林保护区制定政策有价值。该项目还提高了我们对世界上这一重要地区的认识，并有助于培养一名年轻的社会科学家。

0109925Schmink / Wallace This dissertation research project in cultural anthropology studies the effects of markets and household wealth on the extraction of resources from the tropical forest in the Brazilian Amazon. Combining theories and methods from microeconomics, economic anthropology and cognitive anthropology, the student will test hypotheses relating household wealth, income, extractive activities, market integration, and knowledge of forest resources among a sample of rubber tappers in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve of Acre, Brazil. Although previous studies examined the effects of wealth and markets on household livelihood strategies, this project advances our understanding by studying these factors in an extractive reserve, where livelihood strategies are limited; it also advances studies in cognitive anthropology by relating intra-cultural variation in rubber tapper knowledge of forest resources to the economic factors that contribute to shape livelihood strategies. The project will examine changes over time, comparing research findings from 1996 with current data, to provide policymakers a yardstick for measuring change in the reserve. This new knowledge will be valuable for creating policy in other tropical forest protected areas. The project also advances our knowledge about this important region of the world, and contributes to the training of a young social scientist.