Subsistence Decisions in Southwestern Madagascar: Coping with Poverty and Hunger or Social Learning?

文化人类学家布拉姆·塔克博士将在马达加斯加西南部开展研究，以科学评估个人学习和社会学习在穷人生存决策中的作用。社会科学中的经典争论之一是，人们是为了自己的最佳利益而做出战略决策的自主主体，还是人类行为是符合社会和文化规范的结果。马达加斯加西南部声称，他们的社会身份代表着不同的经济专业化：Masikoro声称主要是农民、Vezo渔民和Mikea狩猎-采集者。然而，在实践中，所有家庭都在某种程度上将耕种、捕鱼、觅食、放牧和市场化活动结合在一起。在选择从事哪种活动时，决策者必须判断不同类型奖励的价值：食物与现金、即时奖励与延迟奖励(称为时间偏好)、确定性与风险(风险偏好)。如果决策者正在为个人主义者制定战略，那么他们的偏好将根据每个人的情况和需求(以物质财富、社会财富、收入、粮食不安全和饥饿来衡量)而有所不同。如果决策者是社会墨守成规的人，那么他们的偏好在社会群体(人际网络、村庄、宗族或身份)中应该是一致的。这项研究将包括来自两个Masikoro村、两个Vezo村和两个Mikea村的360名成年男性和女性，在2007-2008年的四季期间(以检测季节性变化)。两个数据收集小组(来自格鲁吉亚大学和马达加斯加托利亚拉大学的教师和学生)将收集数据。生存偏好将通过实验来衡量，方法是让人们在四个选项中进行选择，这些选项要么在数量和延迟(时间偏好)上不同，要么在数量和概率(风险偏好)上不同。将通过问卷收集更广泛的数据，以记录年龄、性别、生存策略、村庄住所、氏族成员和社会认同。这些数据将辅之以访谈和观察，以收集和评估物质和社会财富、收入、粮食安全、饥饿、市场一体化以及关于延迟和有风险的选择的叙述。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于关于贫困如何影响决策的社会科学理论。它整合了经济学、文化人类学和行为生态学之间的方法和理论；并探索了财富的显着性，这是社会分析中普遍存在但鲜为人知的变量。这项研究还将提供跨文化数据，以帮助解决重大的微观经济学问题，即人们如何比较看重不同的选择，如立即回报与延迟回报，以及确定性与风险。更广泛地说，着眼于贫困如何影响决策的科学研究对消除贫困具有重要意义。

Cultural anthropologist, Dr. Bram Tucker, will undertake research in southwestern Madagascar to scientifically evaluate the role of individual learning and the role of social learning in subsistence decision making among poor people. One of the classic debates in social science is whether people are autonomous agents who make strategic decisions in their own best interest, or whether human behavior results from conformity to society and cultural norms. Southwestern Malagasy claim that their social identities represent different economic specializations: Masikoro claim to be primarily farmers, Vezo fishers, and Mikea hunter-gatherers. Yet in practice, all households combine farming, fishing, foraging, herding, and market-oriented activities to some degree. In choosing which activity to practice, decision-makers must judge the value of different types of rewards: food versus cash, immediate versus delayed rewards (called time preference), and certainty versus risk (risk preference). If decision-makers are strategizing individualists, then their preferences are predicted to vary from one person to the next according to each person's situation and needs (measured as material wealth, social wealth, income, food insecurity, and hunger). If decision-makers are social conformists, then their preferences should be uniform within social groups (interpersonal networks, villages, clans, or identities). The study will include 360 adult men and women from two Masikoro, two Vezo, and two Mikea villages, over the course of four seasons (to detect seasonal changes) in 2007-2008. Two teams of data collectors (instructors and students from the University of Georgia and the Universite de Toliara, Madagascar) will collect the data. Subsistence preferences will be measured experimentally by asking people to choose among four options that differ either by amount and delay (time preference) or amount and probability (risk preference). More extensive data will be collected with a questionnaire to record age, sex, subsistence strategy, village residence, clan membership, and social identity. These data will be supplemented with interviews and observations to collect and evaluate material and social wealth, income, food security, hunger, market integration, and narratives about delayed and risky choices. The research is important because it will contribute to social science theory about how poverty affects decision-making. It integrates method and theory among economics, cultural anthropology, and behavioral ecology; and explores the salience of wealth, a ubiquitous but poorly understood variable in social analyses. The research also will contribute cross-cultural data to help resolve the significant microeconomic question of how people comparatively value dissimilar options, such as immediate versus delayed rewards, and certainty versus risk. More generally, scientific research that looks at how poverty affects decision making is significant for combating poverty.