This project supports the continuation of the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Yale University in Tanzania, Africa. The project studies the interrelations between pastoralists, foragers, and the local fauna. The student will study subsistence strategies in a marginal environment by analyzing how local people perceive shortages in resources and how these perceptions affect their decisions and behavior. Using a combination of methods including participant observation, intensive interviewing, surveys of human and non-human behavior and data from remote sensing, the project will test the hypotheses that risk avoidance is the primary cognitive factor affecting decisions, while labor shortage is the primary socio- economic factor constraining production. This research is important because human responses to harsh environmental constraints must be understood if policies to ameliorate human suffering and develop local economic and ecological systems are to be successful.
