RELATIONS WITH THE STUDY GROUP AND HOST COUNTRY*

The project will conform to the standards of the American Anthropological Association, Cornell Policy on Research with Human Subjects, Declaration of Barbados (Dostal 1972), Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, and the Comision Indigenista of Venezuela. The investigator is formally associated with IVIC [ad-honorem graduate student]. The Comision Indigenista has granted permission for work in indigenous territory through October 6, 1976.

In relating to Sanema a number of specific measures have been adopted.

(1) A representative ethnographic report will be shown and explained to indicate the nature of the research and secure informed permission.

(2) Whenever feasible data and reports will be referred back to the Sanema to insure their approval as well as its accuracy from their perspective.

(3) Pseudonyms will be employed in reports to preserve privacy.

(4) Sanema individuals directly involved in publications will be given proper credit (with their permission), and in special cases they may even be listed as coauthors.

(5) Royalties from publications and photography will be divided as follows: 50 percent to Sanema in the form of a fund for medical, educational, legal, and/or other assistance as determined in consultation with Sanema, Venezuelan anthropologists and officials; 25 percent for research purposes to IVIC, probably for support of student assistants on the project; and 25 percent for the research purposes of the principal investigator.

(6) Special care will be taken to minimize disturbance to the culture and environment, and to guard against any risk to their health and welfare from the presence of foreign personnel.

(7) Trade goods and other forms of payment will be given to Sanema for cooperation and assistance. The impact of goods on the culture and community will be minimized by introducing only items which the Sanema have already experienced, consider useful, and which are not highly visible.

(8) Minor medical treatment will be given to the Sanema.

(9) Possible consequences of the project during the field work and afterward will be carefully considered in consultation with Sanema, biologists, anthropologists, and officials of Venezuela.

(10) The observation of any problems of Sanema welfare, either resulting from the project or other factors, will be documented and reported to appropriate Venezuelan anthropologists and officials.

(11) Sanema culture and language will be documented for present and future generations of Sanema, including eventually some publications in Sanema as well as in Spanish.

(12) The ecological and cultural requirements for the maintenance and persistence of the Sanema population will be defined.

(13) The groundwork will be laid for a bicultural educational publication for the Sanema in their own language as well as in Spanish. (A Sanema-Spanish primer is already in preparation to be published by the Comision Indigenista).

The significance of the project for Venezuelan scientists and society is as follows.

(1) It will be planned and implemented in close consultation with interested anthropologists, biologists, and officials of Venezuela.

(2) Duplicates of biological and ethnographic specimens, representative photographic documents, research reports and publications will be deposited in appropriate Venezuelan institutions.

(3) Some publications will be in Spanish in Venezuelan journals, and in terms relevant to Venezuelan interests. (The first publication of the project is now in print in Gaceta Indigenista, a newsletter of the Venezuelan Comision Indigenista).

(4) When funding permits, Venezuela biology and anthropology students, when available and qualified, will be incorporated in the project to work on aspects of mutual interest to them and the principle investigator.

(5) The project will study and document culture and ecology that is an important part of Venezuela’s heritage and destined to change, and data will be pooled with other Venezuelan studies for comparative and theoretical purposes.

(6) General results of the research will be disseminated through public lectures in Caracas (e.g., at IVIC and the Audubon Society).

[Reference cited:

Dostal, W., ed., 1972, The Situation of the Indians of South America, Geneva: World Council of Churches].

*This is a copy of an Appendix from Leslie E. Sponsel’s grant proposal for the National Science Foundation which was submitted on June 15, 1975. Subsequently it was reproduced as Appendix XIV on pages 445-447 of his doctoral dissertation at Cornell University titled: The Hunter and the Hunted in the Amazon: An Integrated Biological and Cultural Approach to the Behavioral Ecology of Human Predation in August 1981.