Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: An Examination of the Role of Inter-generational Interactions and Learning Contexts in the Process of TEK Loss in the Sonoran Desert

过去，关于自然界的知识，通常被称为传统生态知识(TEK)，是通过与祖父母、父母或兄弟姐妹等知识更渊博的人互动来学习的。最近的研究表明，这种互动学习体验在儿童中正变得越来越不常见。今天，更多的儿童在正规的课堂环境中获得生物和生态知识，或依靠电视、书籍或视频进行教学。十多年前在亚利桑那州进行的一项研究显示，当将Tohono Oodham儿童与他们的祖父母进行比较时，TEK有所下降。佐治亚大学的一位文化人类学家的这篇论文将检验这样一个命题，即TEK的获得需要一个基于社会互动的学习环境。重点将放在代际接触和教育的作用上，特别是儿童与祖父母或长辈之间的社会关系。本研究将为TEK的消亡或转化提供理论上的帮助。这将有助于理解和预测正在经历社会和环境变革的人口在知识获取过程中的变化。研究结果将为今后进行关于Tohono Oodham文化知识流失的纵向研究提供基线数据，并为其他地区的TEK流失研究提供比较数据。研究成果将应用于当地学校和管风琴仙人掌国家纪念碑目前的生物文化教育工作。这项研究还将为Tohono Oodham的两名合作者提供人种学研究培训，并将创建一个关于索诺兰沙漠动植物的传统生态知识的电子图书馆，分发给当地学校。

In the past, knowledge about the natural world, often referred to as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), was learned through interaction with others who are more knowledgeable, such as grandparents, parents or siblings. Recent research suggests that such interactional learning experiences are becoming less common for children. Today, a greater number of children acquire biological and ecological knowledge in formal classroom settings, or rely on television, books, or videos for instruction. Research conducted over a decade ago in Arizona revealed that there has been a loss of TEK when comparing Tohono Oodham children to their grandparents. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist from the University of Georgia will test the proposition that the acquisition of TEK requires a learning context based on social interactions. The focus will be on the role of inter-generational contact and instruction, specifically the social relationships between children and a grandparent or elder. This research will contribute to theory on the loss or transformation of TEK. The will help to understand and predict changes in the process of knowledge acquisition in populations undergoing social and environmental transformations. Research results will provide baseline data for conducting future longitudinal studies on the loss of cultural knowledge among Tohono Oodham, and comparative data for research on loss of TEK in other locations. Research results will be applied to current biocultural education efforts in local schools and in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The research also will provide ethnographic research training for two Tohono Oodham collaborators and will create an electronic library of traditional ecological knowledge about Sonoran Desert plants and animals to be distributed to local schools.