This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The project will investigate the behavioral ecology of resource use and common property management of the Ecuadorian Huaorani Indians, in the context of regional petroleum development. The Indian community are hunter-gatherer-horticulturalists who live in a lowland moist tropical forest in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The development industry has made wage labor available to the Indians, causing the men to migrate to work sites. The study will assess how the Indians are changing their relationship to forest resources in light of these new wage payments. The potential for ecological sustainability will be studied through analyzing indigenous conservation of faunal resources through an optimal diet breadth analysis. Economic sustainability will be investigated through time allocation, diet, and household diversification studies. This project will integrate two bodies of theory, from evolutionary ecology (foraging theory) and political ecology (common property theory), to contribute to a new perspective that is cognizant of human adaptability and the influence of larger economic, social and political context. The research is also valuable because it will contribute to our nation's expertise about this important area of the world.
