Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Economy of Child Labor in the Acai Commodity Chain

范德比尔特大学博士候选人蒙特·d·亨德里克森（Monte D. Hendrickson）将在贝丝·a·康克林（Beth a . Conklin）博士的指导下进行研究，探讨儿童在生产出口商品中所扮演角色的文化标准，这是一个很少受到人类学关注的主题。Hendrickson的研究特别关注巴西亚马逊河下游地区的巴西莓生产，并调查了儿童在这种商品生产中的作用，这种商品作为一种环境可持续和对社会负责的产品销售，提高了农村贫困人口的生计。本研究旨在了解全球商品繁荣所涉及的道德和经济过程如何影响出口商品链生产端的贫困家庭儿童的生活和儿童的文化政治。为了评估巴西莓和儿童健康之间的复杂联系，研究将在帕拉州的两个农村社区Gurupa和Curralinho进行。研究将涉及多种定性和定量数据来源，以深入了解当地关于儿童健康、教育和劳动决策的概念、理解和观点，以及儿童对巴西莓生产的贡献。来自官方记录的统计数据和来自家庭调查的调查结果将通过民族志参与者观察、开放式访谈、半结构化和结构化访谈、对儿童的参与性照片访谈以及在每个社区收集的生活史来补充和背景化。这项研究意义重大，因为它有助于人权问题的一个理论化不足的方面：对家庭/家庭背景下儿童劳动活动的道德和伦理评价问题。这项调查将产生丰富的案例研究的工作条件，对收入，教育和健康的影响，以及对儿童和童年的态度在这些农村亚马逊社区。基于这一实地研究的论文将把这一本地案例研究与区域和国际层面关于巴西莓、公平贸易、农村家庭生产和童工的利益的论述并置。

Vanderbilt University doctoral candidate Monte D. Hendrickson, supervised by Dr. Beth A. Conklin, will conduct research addressing the cultural criteria of children's roles in producing export commodities, a subject that has received little anthropological attention. Hendrickson's study focuses specifically on acai production in the lower Amazon region of Brazil and investigates children's roles in the production of this commodity, which is marketed as an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible product that enhances the livelihoods of the rural poor. This research seeks to understand how the moral and economic processes involved in a global commodity boom affect the lives of children and the cultural politics of childhood in poor families at the production end of an export-commodity chain. To evaluate these complex links between acai and children's wellbeing, research will be conducted in two rural communities, Gurupa and Curralinho, in the state of Para. Research will involve multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data to yield insights into local concepts, understandings, and perspectives on decision-making concerning children's health, education, and labor, and children's contributions to acai production. Statistical data from official records and findings from household surveys will be complemented and contextualized by ethnographic participant-observation, open-ended interviewing, semi-structured and structured interviews, participatory photo interviews with children, and life histories collected in each community. This research is significant in that it contributes to an under-theorized dimension of human rights concerns: the question of the moral and ethical evaluation of children's labor activities in family/household contexts. This investigation will produce a rich case study of work conditions, effects on income, education, and health, and attitudes toward children and childhood in these rural Amazonian communities. The dissertation based on this field study will juxtapose this local case study against discourses at the regional and international levels concerning the benefits of acai, fair trade, rural household production, and child labor.