Anthropogenic Environmental Change, Agricultural Intensification, and Socio-Political Evolution in Polynesia

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Kirch博士和他的 同事们将进行考古，生态和 对Mangaia岛的古生态学研究， 库克群岛链。他们将从土壤中提取几个土芯 以获取花粉来重建过去几年来不断变化的植被 数千年 这些数据将由 动物遗骸的分析记录了 在人类第一次占领之后 地貌研究将 显示了地貌是如何随着海平面的变化而变化的 和密集的人类剥削。 最后，考古调查 和挖掘将有助于阐明估计2000年 从人类第一次占领这座岛开始 博士 Kirch希望追踪人口密度、土地使用和 政治组织。 这些数据将提供一个背景 在其中研究的社会组织和经济的 今日子孙。 存在着丰富的人种学数据。 波利尼西亚群岛提供了独特的人类学 实验室，因为它们都是在过去的几个殖民地， 几千年来，基本上是一个单一的文化群体。 这些岛屿 大小、环境和隔离程度各不相同。的 居民也表现出一些不同形式的社会 organization. 人类学家试图将变异 在社会行为中，岛屿类型的变化 运动了解管理人类反应的机制， 环境变化 曼加伊亚展示了一种不寻常的 一个组织，其中主要继承的权利是平衡的， 个人取得的地位。 Kirch认为，这只能 从改变人类与环境关系的角度来理解 随着时间的推移，这个项目旨在调查， 互动 这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。 将加大 我们对部落组织原则的理解 基于社会（继续存在于世界许多地区） world.）。 它还将展示群体如何面对 资源和适应战略日益有限 他们发展。 这项工作将为大型 考古学家和帮助培养年轻科学家。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kirch and his colleagues will conduct archaeological, ecological and paleoecological research on the island of Mangaia which is part of the Cook Islands chain. They will extract several soil cores to obtain pollen to reconstruct changing vegetation over the last several thousand years. These data will be supplemented by the analysis of faunal remains which document the periods both before and after first human occupation. Geomorphological studies will show how landforms changed in response to both changing sea level and intensive human exploitation. Finally, archaeological survey and excavation will serve to elucidate the estimated 2000 year span since the first occupation of the island by humans. Dr. Kirch wishes to trace changes in population density, land use and political organization. These data will then provide a context within which to study the social organization and economy of the present day descendants. A wealth of ethnographic data exists. The islands of Polynesia provide a unique anthropological laboratory because they were all colonized in the last several thousand years by basically a single cultural group. The islands vary in size and environment and degree of isolation. The inhabitants also exhibit a number of different forms of social organization. Anthropologists have attempted to relate variation in social behavior to variation in island type and through this exercise understand the mechanisms which govern human response to environmental variation. Mangaia exhibits an unusual form of organization in which chiefly inherited rights are balanced by individually achieved status. Kirch believes that this can only be understood in terms of changing human - environment relations over time and this project is designed to investigate that interaction. This project is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of the organizational principles of tribal- based societies (which continue to exist in many parts of the world.). It will also show how groups act in the face of increasingly limited resources and the strategies of adaptation they develop. The work will provide data of interest to a large group of archaeologists and help to train young scientists.