This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Pittsburgh. The student will assess the cultural and economic viability of a development project to reintroduce a prehispanic system of agriculture, using raised fields, to the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia. The student's thesis is that today's raised field agricultural technology is a creation of middle class development specialists who use it to advance their ideal of prehispanic culture and obtain funds from international development agencies, while the technology may not be the most appropriate development strategy for the indigenous peasants it is being promoted to. Using techniques of ethnographic participant observation and surveys of 80 households involved in various types of raised field experiments (as well as a control group of households not involve in raised field agriculture) the student will assess the viability and impact of the raised fields for sustainable development. This research is important because it will increase our expertise about this region of the world, while at the same time providing an significant case study to assess a development strategy. This general region is extremely poor, and the advance in our understanding of viable development strategies will be valuable for regional development planners. In addition this case study of the `invented tradition` of raised field agriculture will be very useful to theorists of economic development who try to understand why projects come into existence, flourish or fail.
