American Ranchers

Location

▸ Malpai Borderlands,
AZ & NM, USA

Anthropologist

▸ Lee Cronk and
Athena Aktipis

The Malpai borderlands region straddles the border between Arizona and New Mexico just north of Mexico. The Human Generosity Project is studying the ways in which ranchers in this remote and thinly populated region support each other in times of need. Our preliminary research indicates that such support is often in response to injuries that the ranchers, their workers, and their family members sustain while doing the often dangerous work involved in running a ranch. We are examining patterns of helping and generosity and how they relate to local social networks and to the market economy in which the Malpai area’s ranchers are operating.