Long panel studies of small-scale rural societies in the Global South: What is their value, why are they rare, and suggestions to make them happen
回顾了低收入国家小型农村社会中长期面板研究的现状，发现此类研究稀缺且多聚焦人类生物学，并以玻利维亚亚马逊Tsimane’人群的年度面板数据为例，揭示了其与高收入国家在代内流动性、体重变化等方面的异同，最后讨论了推进此类研究的障碍与对策。
Many topics in the behavioral sciences and epidemiology require researchers to directly observe entities (e.g., individuals, households) over a long time to identify lasting effects. Long-term panel data collection is more common in high-income countries than in small-scale rural societies (SSRS) of low-income countries. SSRS are mobile, nature-dependent, linguistic minorities, and highly autarkic. Analyzing such data using a life-course perspective can help uncover patterns that align or upend what we know from high-income countries. This study a) reviews long (>∼10 year) panels in SSRS (n = 9), b) extends the analysis to cover somewhat comparable societies of smallholders (n = 7) who are less autarkic, and c) draws on annual panel data (2002–2010) from one SSRS in the Bolivian Amazon (Tsimane’) to illustrate how adult life-course patterns may vary but also resemble patterns in high-income countries. In general, panels have focused more on human biology than on socioeconomic outcomes, have gathered data at irregular intervals, and have not deposited datasets in public repositories. Compared with people in high-income countries, Tsimane’ were similar in the amount of intragenerational immobility at the very top and the very bottom of the income and wealth distribution. In both places, body weight rose while sociality frayed over time. Yet Tsimane’ differed in having more economic mobility outside the top and bottom income and wealth distribution, a slightly higher growth rate in economic inequality, and no correlation between economic mobility and age. We identify institutional and individual hurdles to collecting panel data in SSRS and discuss steps to overcome them.