Under the supervision of Dr. Hillard Kaplan, graduate student Jonathan Stieglitz will investigate the conditions under which conflict occurs in nuclear and extended families among the Tsimane'. The Tsimane' are an Amerindian population of forager-horticulturalists living in the Amazon basin of Bolivia. Research will be organized into three, three-month phases and will mainly take place in four Tsimane' villages. During phase one Mr. Stieglitz will collect and update census and demographic data, documenting kinship relations and reproductive histories. He will also conduct unstructured interviews among adults on the social and economic issues generating disputes in families. During phase two, he will conduct structured interviews focusing on task delegation in households, children's resistance toward performing assigned tasks, and punishment among roughly 150 participants. Finally, during phase three he will examine the issues generating conflict among nuclear and extended kin, along with support networks following such disputes using structured interviews among roughly 300 adults.
This research will contribute to the cultural study of child development and family relations, and the ecological and evolutionary study of kin conflict and cooperation. This is one of the first projects to explore the role of kin conflict in a small-scale, natural fertility society without much inhertiable wealth. Uncovering the determinants of variation in kin disputes among the Tsimane' will advance our theoretical understanding of human conflict by illuminating the conditions under which we should expect family quarrels to occur in other socieites. The Tsimane' offer an excellent opportunity to study the effects of culture and ecology on family conflict and cooperation since they still invest much time and energy in foraging activities and reside in clusters composed of extended family households. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student.
