Faculty Scholars Award: Multi-level Modeling Analysis of Behavioral Observation Data

University Of Cincinnati Main Campus, Cincinnati OH

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made through the NSF Cultural Anthropology Faculty Scholars Program, which supports specialized technical training for anthropologists with on-going research programs. Dr. Jeremy M. Koster of the University of Cincinnati will receive training in advanced statistical techniques that support multi-level modeling for the analysis of behavioral observation data. Koster will employ multi-level modeling to analyze data on the subsistence strategies of indigenous horticulturalists in lowland Nicaragua. Koster's research seeks to understand how individuals behave to meet subsistence and economic needs throughout the seasonal round given variation in their ages, wealth, skills, household composition, and social networks. The research is important because better understanding of subsistence livelihoods can inform interactions between the United States and countries with autonomous indigenous populations, particularly in parts of the world that have been characterized by political unrest and conflict. This award will allow the researcher to apply advanced statistical techniques to a common type of anthropological data, and the outcomes of this training will include analytical approaches that also can be employed by other researchers.