Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Skill Investment and Resource Acquisition Among the Maku-Nadeb of Northwest Amazonas, Brazil

人类觅食生态位通常被解释为在人类行为和生活史的进化中起着核心作用。本研究旨在系统地考察传统亚马逊社会中特定食品生产活动的力量和技能组成部分的发展和衰老。仔细记录传统生活方式对于研究人类起源问题至关重要，特别是考虑到传统社会与邻近国家级社会的文化适应的迅速趋势。这个项目是一个长期研究项目的开始，大约有287名Maku-Nadeb人生活在巴西亚马逊西北部的三个村庄。本研究的目的是评估在获取觅食技能方面的高投资回报是否在人类大脑变大、寿命变长和延长幼年期的进化中是一种重要的选择力量。这将通过以下方式实现：1)将特定任务的生产能力分解为力量和技能组件；2)分析这些成分在整个生命周期、性别之间和个体之间的变化；3)确定熟练掌握重要生存活动所需的投资水平和潜在的关键学习期；4)评估技能投资的成本与生命后期提高产量的收益。本研究的主要研究问题如下：狩猎和采集活动的技能组成部分是什么？觅食者如何投资于技能习得？技能习得对以后生活中的食物回报有什么好处？男性和女性在投资方面有什么不同？投资的回报是否不同？为了检验关于人类进化是否以及为什么以技能投资增加为特征的假设，有必要衡量经济中技能投资的成本和收益。研究将集中在资源获取模式、儿童活动、身体发育和表现。Maku-Nadeb提出的方法是衡量食物回报，跟踪焦点个人，每天就其活动采访线人，并对所有年龄和性别的个人进行一系列身体表现、技能和生产能力测试。这些数据可以促进与其他觅食和/或部落园艺群体的跨文化比较，在这些群体中，年龄、人体测量学和资源回收率数据是可用的。

The human foraging niche is often interpreted as playing a central role in the evolution of human behavior and life history. This study seeks to systematically examine the development and senescence of the strength and skill components of specific food production activities in a traditional Amazonian society. Careful documentation of traditional lifeways is crucial for examining issues of human origins, especially given the rapid trend of acculturation of traditional societies into neighboring state-level societies. This project is the commencement of a long-term research program with approximately 287 Maku-Nadeb living in three villages in northwest Amazonas, Brazil. The objective of this research is to evaluate whether returns on high investments in foraging skill acquisition are an important selective force in the evolution of large brains, long lifespans and extended juvenile periods in humans. This will be accomplished by the following: 1) decomposing task-specific production ability into strength and skill components; 2) analyzing how these components vary across the lifespan, between the sexes, and among individuals; 3) establishing the level of investment, and potentially the critical learning period, needed to obtain proficiency in important subsistence activities; and 4) evaluating the costs to skill investment versus the benefits to elevated production later in life. The principal study questions of this research are the following: What are the skill components of hunting and gathering activities? How do foragers invest in skill acquisition? What are the benefits of skill acquisition on food returns later in life? What are the differences in investment between males and females, and are the payoffs to investments different? To test hypotheses concerning if and why human evolution is characterized by increases in skill investment, it will be necessary to measure both the costs and benefits of skill investment in the economy. The research will focus on patterns of resource acquisition, children's activities, and physical growth and performance. Proposed methods with the Maku-Nadeb are to weigh food returns, follow focal individuals, interview informants daily concerning their activities, and perform a battery of physical performance, skill, and production ability tests on individuals of all ages and both sexes. These data can facilitate cross-cultural comparisons with other foraging and/or tribal horticultural groups where ages, anthropometrics and resource return rate data are available.