U.S.-South Africa Dissertation Enhancement: Seasonal Variation in the Hunting Activities of the Prehistoric Inhabitants of the South African Cape

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9731229 Marean & Lam This dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Mr. Yin-Man Lam, working under the guidance of Dr. Curtis W. Marean, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, to do field research in South Africa. The South African Cape contains some of the earliest fossil evidence of anatomically modern humans, from which much has been learned about the evolution of modern human behavior. But little is known about the manner in which Middle Stone Age (MSA) peoples and Late Stone Age (LSA) hunter-gatherers interacted with prey animals at different times of the year, or if the timing of those interactions influenced the manner in which they adapted to seasonal variations in climate and resource availability. By determining the time of the year during which human foragers interacted with and killed prey animals, Mr. Lam hypothesizes that the season of occupation of MSA and LSA peoples can be identified. The season of death of prey animals, specifically bovids and seals, will be determined by use of a technique which will analyze the cementum increments of mandibular specimens from fossil prey animals previously extracted from MSA and LSA sites, and from modern samples collected from the all-year rainfall and winter rainfall regions of the Cape. The resulting data will be interpreted to determine if early and recent modern humans used different foraging patterns, and whether those patterns were due to changes in such variables as climate, population pressure, or their respective cognitive abilities. The results are expected to identify how prehistoric peoples reacted to seasonal climatic and resource fluctuations in their environment, from which a better understanding can be gained about the manner in which early and modern peoples adapted to the many large-scale climatic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene. The analytical technique of studying growth increments in the tooth cem entum of prey animals has not been used before in this region, and Mr. Lam also expects the results to show its feasibility of using the technique for the interpretation of archaeological data from southern Africa. Staff members at the South African Museum and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town will collaborate with Mr. Lam on this project. This study will expand the existing knowledge of prehistoric human behavior and evolution in the South African Cape, and it will create a reference collection of cementum increment analysis samples for the interpretation of archaeological data from the region. Additionally, it will also explore the feasibility of using the cementum increment analysis technique for the study of prehistoric human behavior in southern Africa. The grant will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career. Funding for this project is being jointly provided by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research.