Melanie Martin is a UCSB graduate student in Integrative Anthropological Sciences. Her research focuses on how disease and nutritional ecology shape maternal and child morbidity, mortality, and fertility. She conducts fieldwork with the Tsimane, an indigenous population of lowland Bolivia, and is affiliated with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project. Her research with the Tsimane explores how variation in breastfeeding and weaning practices influence Tsimane infant morbidity, postpartum fecundity, and fertility rates. She is also interested in how factors such as infant growth, maternal condition, family structure, familial resources, and cultural norms influence variation in early breastfeeding practices among Tsimane mothers.
Grants, Awards and Distinctions:
Tenure-track in Anthropology at University of Washington.