Collaborative Research: Demographic and Genealogical Dimensions of Cultural and Biological Success

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

The public investments that have been made in science obligate researchers to make as much data as possible available, such that society to benefit from those investments as future researchers analyze that data and produce new discoveries. This research project amasses decades of primary data the demography and genealogy of population that has been extensively studied by anthropologists, begins to analyze it for patterns related to cultural and biological success, and archives it for future public access. In making several decades of primary data available to the public on-line at the University of Michigan through IPSCR, this project broadens the dissemination of scientific data to enhance scientific and technological understanding. Dr. Napoleon Chagnon of the University of Missouri at Columbia, and Dr. Raymond Hames of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln will explore the impact of marriage form, marital alliances, kin presence, and parental loss on fertility, offspring survivorship and marital stability. This project has two objectives. The first is to make the Yanomamo demographic and genealogical data base available to researchers via the Internet for use by interested social scientists who wish to test a wide variety of theories revolving around kinship, demographic processes, and marriage. The second goal is to test a variety of human evolutionary theories that address how variation in marriage form, marriage duration, and kin support affects the wellbeing and marital and social success of children. As a natural fertility population with little outside contact and with all known marital forms the Yanomamo are uniquely suited to shed light on the nature of human marriage and families. Just as importantly, the Yanomamö data base is the largest ever amassed for any tribal population. It was collected over a 35 year period through 25 field trips by Napoleon Chagnon from 1964-1999. Currently, this largely prospective data base has genealogical and demographic information on approximately 4,159 (2,107 living and 2,052 deceased) individuals and the project will permit the addition of another 2,500 Yanomamo who have yet to be entered, error checked, and integrated into the current data base. Its resultant size will allow comprehensive statistical analysis not possible with smaller data bases collected by anthropologists. The data will be archived for downloading in a variety of standard formats for statistical analysis. In addition, the project will create a freely available but more user friendly version of KINDEMCOM, a unique PC comparative statistical program designed for sophisticated genealogical analysis of the data. Once the data base is complete and publically goes on-line through IPSCR at the University of Michigan the project leaders and other interested social scientists will be able to investigate the genealogical and demographic dimensions of cultural and biological success.