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

9731229 Marean&Amp；Lam本学位论文增强助学金资助美国研究生林贤文先生在纽约州立大学石溪分校人类学副教授柯蒂斯·W·马林博士的指导下前往南非进行实地研究。南非海角包含了一些最早的解剖学上现代人类的化石证据，从中我们已经了解了许多关于现代人类行为的进化。但人们对石器时代中期(MSA)和石器时代晚期(LSA)狩猎-采集者在一年中的不同时间与被捕食动物互动的方式知之甚少，也不知道这些互动的时间是否影响了他们适应气候和资源可获得性季节变化的方式。通过确定一年中人类觅食者与猎物相互作用并杀死猎物的时间，林先生假设可以确定MSA和LSA人占领的季节。捕食动物，特别是牛和海豹的死亡季节将通过一种技术来确定，该技术将分析以前从MSA和LSA地点提取的被捕食动物化石标本的下颌牙骨质增量，以及从开普敦全年降雨量和冬季降雨区收集的现代样本。由此产生的数据将被解释为确定早期和现代人类是否使用不同的觅食模式，以及这些模式是由于气候、人口压力或他们各自的认知能力等变量的变化所致。这些结果有望确定史前民族对其环境中季节性气候和资源波动的反应，从中可以更好地了解早期和现代人民适应更新世期间发生的许多大规模气候变化的方式。研究被捕食动物牙齿CEM内生长增量的分析技术以前从未在该地区使用过，林先生还希望结果表明，该技术用于解释南部非洲的考古数据是可行的。南非博物馆和开普敦大学考古系的工作人员将在这个项目上与林先生合作。这项研究将扩大南非开普敦史前人类行为和进化的现有知识，并将创建一个用于解释该地区考古数据的牙骨质增量分析样本的参考集。此外，它还将探索使用牙骨质增量分析技术研究南部非洲史前人类行为的可行性。这笔助学金还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立一个强大的、独立的研究生涯。该项目的资金由国际方案司和社会、行为和经济研究司联合提供。

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.