Dr. Stephen Beckerman will use this award to complete ethnographic research on a South American tropical forest society, the Barà of Venezuela. There are four major data gaps to be addressed in this research: 1) the locations and identities of all Barà local and territorial groups; 2) Barà relationships with non-Barà neighbors; 3) partible paternity, a very rare kinship system in which multiple fathers share paternal status for a single child; and 4) the relationship between household economy and marriage practices.
Completing documentation of Barà society is important because there are very few groups for which pre-contact ecological and demographic information still can be gathered. Research to date has shown that Barà social practices were ecologically sound. For example, partible paternity significantly increases child survivorship. Completing documentation of the Barà will help scientists to understand the full range of human socioecological systems. The research also supports international scientific collaboration.
