This project involves the dissertation research of a student from the University of California-Davis. The project is to study marriage strategies of traditional people in Nepal. The student will examine monogamous, fraternal polyandrous, and polygynandrous marriages, examining the decision rules used to guide people into each type of marriage. The methods will include household survey censuses, retrospective fertility and marital histories, and in-depth interviews. The student will test hypotheses that individuals will select marriage forms that enhance their individual economic positions with consequences for their behavioral ecological fitness. This research is important because it adds to our understanding of alternative forms of marriage, which are increasingly rare in the world. In addition the project trains a social scientist in research methods and enhances our knowledge of this exotic but important region of the world.
