The Making of a University Hub for Basic Cultural Anthropological Research Related to Cultural and Biodiversity Conservation

没有哪个群体能免受生态危机的影响，但土著、农村和少数民族社区往往是受害最深的群体。该项目通过两种方式解决危机期间的不平等问题：1)关注“其他他人”，特别是目前面临重大环境问题的喜马拉雅山脉较高地区的土著社区；2)包括本科生和研究生，他们将进行研究、推广活动和研讨会。从这个意义上说，该项目进一步发展了社区和国际高等教育机构之间的长期协同作用，包括研究文化人类学和生物多样性保护的利益相关者。这项研究对包括行为科学和社会科学在内的各种科学领域进行了三角测量。本文研究了传统生态知识假说（TEK），通过关注四个相互关联但又相互独立的目标来确定：(1)某些形式的市场整合是否可以在不侵蚀当地生态知识的情况下发展；(2)宗教信仰是否与保护自然环境有关；(3)个体社会文化特征和人口统计学特征对TEK的影响程度；(4)知识共享的选择是否基于社会线索。这项研究涉及了几个高度创新的元素，比如首次深入研究文化规范、宇宙学和信仰，将前沿的统计模型和社会网络研究与更定性的传统文化方法结合起来，探索学习过程如何随着时间的推移而变化。该项目由hbcu卓越研究计划共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

No group is immune to ecological crises but indigenous, rural, and minority communities are often the ones that suffer most. The project addresses inequities during crises in two ways: 1) by focusing on 'other others', particularly on indigenous communities of the higher Himalayas, that are now confronting major environmental problems; and 2) by including undergraduate and graduate students who will conduct research, outreach activities, and workshops. In this sense, the project further develops long-term synergies between communities and international institutions of higher learning, including stakeholders that study cultural anthropological and biodiversity conservation.The research triangulates a variety of scientific fields including the behavioral and social sciences. It studies the Traditional Ecological Knowledge hypothesis (TEK) by focusing on four interconnected yet separate objectives to determine (1) whether some forms of market incorporation could develop without eroding local ecological knowledge; (2) whether religious beliefs are associated with the conservation of the physical environment; (3) the extent to which individual socio-cultural and demographic traits affect TEK; and finally (4) whether the selection of knowledge sharing is based on social cues. The study involves several highly innovative elements, such as being one of the first in-depth examinations of cultural norms, cosmology, and beliefs to integrate cutting-edge statistical modeling and social network studies with more qualitative, traditional cultural approaches to explore how the learning process change over time.The project is funded with co-funding support from the HBCU-Excellence in Research Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.