Dissertation Research: Tensas Paleoethnobotanical Project

论文研究：坦萨斯古民族植物学项目

• 批准号: 0118849
• 负责人: Gayle Fritz
• 金额: $ 1.03万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2005-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0118849&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Tensas; Paleoethnobotanical; Project

Under the direction of Dr. Gayle Fritz, Katherine Roberts will complete The Tensas Paleoethnobotanical Project. This project/dissertation will document the emergence of aboriginal farming, in the form of both horticulture and agriculture, in the Tensas Basin of Northeast Louisiana located in the Lower Mississippi Valley. It will employ basic models and tenets from evolutionary ecology as the main interpretive framework to enable examination of these processes in sociopolitical context. Specifically, it will investigate how risk reduction may have influenced decisions about resource utilization. Evidence will be taken from plant remains, archaeological data, and ecological information.. Current data suggest that although a certain level of complexity was achieved in the Tensas based on nut and fruit management, with the advent and subsequent intensification of maize, Tensas Basin society became noticeably more complex. In contrast, farming of native seeds had fewer discernible social ramifications. These patterns require further substantiation and explanation. Plant remain analyses are an excellent means for testing hypotheses about the dynamics of the evolution of economic and cultural systems. This study, combined with application of predictions from particular models derived from evolutionary ecology, will help focus interpretation on the nature and consequences of the interaction between people and their food plants. The project/dissertation will expand an already impressive plant remain database and critically examine factors effecting foodways in the Tensas basin through a localized case study. Completion of this project will augment knowledge of the patterns and processes of food production during the time period spanning A.D. 700 - A.D. 1400, focusing on the effect of agriculture on indigenous economic strategies. Hypotheses concerning the local population's dependence on maize versus native resources will be examined on the basis of empirical evidence with consideration of the ecological and historical context in which these behavioral changes took place. Results of this study will provide insight into the interplay among environment, risk, and the evolution of subsistence and social structure, ultimately shedding light on developmental processes in other regions as well. The Tensas Paleoethnobotanical Project will provide some clarification of why and how these fisher-hunter-collectors eventually became farmers and in so doing, the study will fulfill the larger objective of developing explanations for the origin of food production in the Tensas Basin. Why the hunter-collector-fisher economy in the Tensas persisted as long as it did, and why local groups were seemingly so reluctant to embrace maize agriculture, will be discussed. This dissertation will provide a well studied example of sedentary and socially complex moundbuilders who subsequently adopted maize. Ecologically based explanations for the adoption of agriculture and the socio-political changes it brings will confront arguments of increased complexity in Mississippian times deriving from aggrandizing individuals striving for power. Additionally, explanations of population pressure and climatic change need not be invoked as exogenous variables for the shift to. Finally, data collection and hypothesis testing involved in this project will provide an empirical case study to aid evaluation of proposals for subsistence patterning in the region.

在盖尔·弗里茨博士的指导下，凯瑟琳·罗伯茨将完成田纳西州古民族植物学项目。这个项目/论文将记录土著农业的出现，以园艺和农业的形式，在田纳西州东北部的田纳西州盆地位于密西西比河谷下游。它将采用进化生态学的基本模型和原则作为主要的解释框架，以便在社会政治背景下检查这些过程。具体而言，它将调查减少风险可能如何影响有关资源利用的决定。证据将取自植物遗迹、考古资料和生态信息。目前的数据表明，尽管在基于坚果和水果管理的Tensas地区实现了一定程度的复杂性，但随着玉米的出现和随后的集约化，Tensas流域社会变得明显更加复杂。相比之下，种植本地种子对社会的影响较小。这些模式需要进一步证实和解释。植物遗骸分析是检验关于经济和文化系统演化动态的假设的极好方法。这项研究，结合来自进化生态学的特定模型的预测应用，将有助于集中解释人类与食用植物之间相互作用的性质和后果。该项目/论文将扩展一个已经令人印象深刻的植物遗迹数据库，并通过本地化案例研究严格审查影响田纳西州盆地食物方式的因素。该项目的完成将增加对公元700年至1400年期间粮食生产模式和过程的了解，重点关注农业对土著经济战略的影响。将根据经验证据，考虑到这些行为变化发生的生态和历史背景，对有关当地人口对玉米和本地资源的依赖的假设进行审查。本研究结果将有助于深入了解环境、风险与生存和社会结构演变之间的相互作用，并最终为其他地区的发展过程提供启示。“坦萨斯古民族植物学项目”将对这些渔民、猎人、采集者最终成为农民的原因和方式提供一些澄清，并通过这样做，这项研究将实现更大的目标，即为坦萨斯盆地粮食生产的起源提供解释。为什么狩猎-采集-捕鱼经济在田纳西持续了这么长时间，以及为什么当地团体似乎如此不愿意接受玉米农业，将会被讨论。这篇论文将提供一个很好的研究例子，久坐和社会复杂的建墩者后来采用了玉米。对农业的采用及其带来的社会政治变化的基于生态学的解释将面临密西西比时代越来越复杂的争论，这些争论来自于夸大个人对权力的追求。此外，对人口压力和气候变化的解释不需要作为向气候变化转变的外生变量。最后，本项目所涉及的数据收集和假设检验将提供一个经验案例研究，以帮助评价该区域的生存模式建议。