Doctoral Dissertation Research: Post-marital residence among the Thwa of northwestern Namibia

在Elizabeth A. Cashdan博士的指导下，犹他大学的博士生Layne J. Vashro将调查传统社会中女性居住在托儿服务提供者附近的愿望如何影响婚后居住和儿童健康。社会科学家通常通过跨文化比较来分析人类婚后居住模式在世界范围内的显著差异，这种方法没有考虑到群体内部的差异。相比之下，本项目旨在确定组内变化的程度和来源，特别关注分配。最近的研究表明，女性从家庭获得的托儿援助是她们婚后留在家中的一种激励。这项研究将在纳米比亚西北部的Thwa人中进行。特瓦人实行可变的婚后居住，儿童和婴儿死亡率很高。Vashro将从斑马山山谷的Thwa营地收集数据。数据来源将包括访谈、人口普查、儿童保育行为观察和人体测量测量。这些数据将用于检验几个假设，包括是否有护理提供者可以预测婚后居住，以及是否会影响儿童健康。该项目将作为了解个体差异如何影响婚后居住的第一步，这将阐明缺乏明确定义的婚后居住规则的社会中的居住模式。了解群体内部形成居住变化的力量也将有助于了解婚后居住中更广泛的跨文化模式。该项目还将记录一个以前未得到充分研究的群体，并有助于了解影响儿童健康的多种因素。资助这项研究也支持了社会科学家的教育。

University of Utah doctoral student, Layne J. Vashro, supervised by Dr. Elizabeth A. Cashdan, will investigate how women's desire to live near childcare providers affects post-marital residence and child health in traditional societies. Social scientists typically have analyzed the significant worldwide variability in human post-marital residence patterns through cross-cultural comparisons, an approach that does not take into account within group variability. In contrast, this project seeks to identify the degree and sources of within-group variation, focusing on allocare in particular. Recent research suggests that the childcare assistance women receive from their family is an incentive for them to remain close to home after marriage. The research will be conducted among the Thwa of northwestern Namibia. The Thwa practice variable post-marital residence and are subject to high rates of child and infant mortality. Vashro will collect data from Thwa camps in the Zebra Mountain valley. Data sources will include interviews, censuses, observations of childcare behavior, and anthropometric measurements. These data will be used test several hypotheses including whether the availability of care providers predicts post-marital residence and whether it affects child health.This project will act as an initial step towards understanding how individual variation affects post-marital residence, which will illuminate the patterning of residence in societies that lack clearly defined post-marital residence rules. Understanding the forces that shape residence variability within groups will also speak to broader cross-cultural patterns in post-marital residence. The project also will document a previously under-studied group and contribute to understanding the multiple factors that affect child health. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.