Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ethnobotanical Knowledge Acquisition Among Tsimane Children

土著人民的民族植物学知识正在迅速消失。因此，在这些信息被科学遗忘之前，将其记录下来是非常重要的。这样的研究有助于确保记录有关植物有用性的信息。它还帮助我们理解知识是如何更广泛地学习和代代相传的。研究生Maria-Ruth Martinez在Brent Berlin博士的指导下，将对Tsimane的民族植物学知识进行研究，Tsimane是生活在玻利维亚亚马逊低地的相对孤立的土著民族。马丁内斯将研究儿童的知识，这是一个在民族植物学研究中经常被忽视的群体。大约200名儿童（7-15岁）和他们的父母将被邀请参加，这样她就可以调查提斯曼儿童的理论和实践民族植物学知识，他们的学习社会和经验背景，以及他们特定的习得模式。研究将采用混合方法，包括参与观察、自由清单、半结构化访谈、民族植物学收集、民族植物学知识测试和时间分配扫描。待检验的假设是：H1：儿童的民族植物学知识与同性父母的民族植物学知识呈正相关；H2：儿童的民族植物学知识与其兄弟姐妹的民族植物学知识呈正相关；H3：孩子与同性父母和兄弟姐妹相处的时间与孩子的民族植物学知识呈正相关；H4：父母和兄弟姐妹的民族植物学知识（H1-H2）和与这些数字相处的时间（H3）对儿童的民族植物学知识有正向的交互作用；H5：孩子与自然互动的相对时间与孩子的民族植物学知识呈正相关；H6：在儿童时期获得植物知识是有规律的。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于了解儿童的学习方式，它将记录濒危的民族植物学知识，它将有助于制定更好的保护民族植物学知识的策略，它将有助于从一个代表性不足的群体中培养女性社会科学家。

Ethnobotanical knowledge of indigenous people is fast disappearing. Therefore, it is important to document this information before it is lost to science. Such research helps to ensure that information about plant usefulness is recordetd. It also helps us to understand how knowledge more generally is learned and transmitted over generations. Graduate student Maria-Ruth Martinez, supervised by Dr. Brent Berlin, will undertake research on the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Tsimane, a relatively isolated indigenous people who live in lowland Amazonia Bolivia.Martinez will study the knowledge of children, a population often overlooked in ethnobotanical studies. About 200 children (ages 7-15) and their parents will be asked to participate so that she can investigate the theoretical and practical ethnobotanical knowledge of Tsimane children, their social and experiential contexts for learning, and their specific acquisition patterns. The research will use a mixed-methods approach, including participant observation, free-listing, semi-structured interviews, ethnobotanical collections, ethnobotanical knowledge tests, and time allocation scans. Hypotheses to be tested are: H1: A child''s ethnobotanical knowledge will bear a positive association with the ethnobotanical knowledge of the same sex parent; H2: A child''s ethnobotanical knowledge will bear a positive association with the ethnobotanical knowledge of his/her siblings; H3: The amount of time a child spends with his/her same sex parent and siblings will be positively associated with the child''s ethnobotanical knowledge; H4: There will be a positive interaction effect on a child''s ethnobotanical knowledge between parental and siblings ethnobotanical knowledge (H1-H2) and time spent with these figures (H3); H5: The relative amount of time a child spends interacting with nature will be positively associated with the child''s ethnobotanical knowledge; and, H6: There is a pattern to which plant knowledge is acquired during childhood. This research is important because it will contribute to understanding how children learn, it will document endangered ethnobotanical knowledge, it will help to develop better strategies for conserving ethnobotanical knowledge, and it will contribute to the education of a female social scientist from an under represented group.