SFI researchers are among dozens of scientists studying the indigenous and isolated Tsimane of northern Bolivia to gain insights in to human health and behavior.

One major study, the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, is led by frequent SFI collaborators Hillard Kaplan and Michael Gurven.

Several SFI researchers are contributing to studies of data generated by the project, including SFI Professor Sam Bowles and SFI Omidyar Fellow Paul Hooper, who are part of an SFI effort to examine the inheritance of inequality in premodern societies.

"The Tsimane will soon become a basic point of reference for everyone studying small-scale societies,” says Bowles in a September 24 New York Times article. 

“The world is changing around the Tsimane, and they are changing with it, regardless of our presence,” says Kaplan of criticism that modern medical assistance is rendering the Tsimane less attractive study subjects. 

Read the article in The New York Times (September 24, 2012)