Abstract:

Intersections with the global capitalist market system offer challenges and opportunities for Indigenous people living in more or less economically autonomous communities. In contexts of increasing intersection, individuals engage with new globalized culture and economic practices in diverse ways depending on their positions within local social and economic systems. While there is a substantial literature on the emergence of inequality in such settings, there is a gap in research on the pathways through which people initially start shifting towards a cash-dependent subsistence strategy. Guided by cultural evolutionary theory, and drawing on data from 200 semi-structured interviews from one village in the Republic of the Congo, we use a Bayesian probability modeling approach to examine: 1) the role of individual differences as predictors of market intersection, here focused on gender, age, and migration status; and 2) the cultural transmission modes associated with individual’s economic strategies. Our analyses are on-going, but these data have implications for understanding how life histories interact with strategic social learning to motivate behavioral change at the individual level; and how cultural evolutionary forces may scale these up to higher level changes associated with globalization, including increased socio-economic inequality and ecosystem disruption (e.g., via employment for extractive industries).

Speaker's social media:

Twitter: @utcp7b2e