This award supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from Southern Methodist University. The project is to study two Mayan Indian peasant communities in Yucatan, Mexico to assess the impact of men's out-migration for periods of wage labor on women's status in the communities. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and intensive interviews as well as a random census of households in two villages, one with extensive male laborer out-migration and the other with insignificant migration, the student will assess the status of women and of households. This research is important because the migratory movement of rural people in response to wage labor opportunities is a major phenomenon in the developing world. this project will advance our understanding of the effects of such migration on the households left behind, and how the temporary increase in women's daily responsibilities to administer their households in their husbands' absence translates (or does not translate) into relatively significant changes in their social and economic status. Women's' status has been shown to be a major factor affecting the welfare of children, so increases in our understanding of the causes of women's status has direct implications for households and families.
