Dissertation Improvement Grant Proposal: An Actualistic and Stable Isotope Study of Three Modern Kenyan Communities Living near Lake Turkana

在约翰·哈里斯博士的指导下，普里蒂·基拉女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的项目是通过直接观察和稳定同位素分析对今天生活在肯尼亚北部图尔卡纳湖以东的三组不同谋生战略的人(Dassanetch、Gabra和El-Molo)的食物消费进行的年度周期研究。这项研究的最终目标是提供一个解释框架，以调查据信在过去10,000年(全新世时期)占领该地区的人的生存战略和饮食。这三个现代族群并不是全新世人类的直接类比，但它们的饮食确实与先前研究人员在该地区提出的饮食相似。然而，如果通过直接观察，包括对丢弃在垃圾坑中的食物残留物的分析，以及通过对现代人的稳定同位素特征的研究，发现这些是离散的，那么就有可能在全新世记录的区域中确定类似的生存战略。Kiura女士和她的现场助理将对人们的饮食行为(食物类型、加工、准备和分享)进行日常观察和采访，同时他们将记录通过人们的食物加工和消费活动被丢弃在垃圾坑中的食物残渣。将对人们消费的动物的头发、骨骼和牙齿以及这些动物吃的植物进行稳定的碳、氮同位素分析，以确定消费的食物类型。每日的天气观测(即雨量、湿度、温度和风型)也将被记录下来，以提供该地区的季节性变化。在这里收集的数据将具有广泛的影响，不仅为研究全新世人民的生存战略奠定基础。这些数据还将通过研究较少的三组现代人的年度周期，提供有关饮食活动的新信息。该地区的植物和动物知之甚少，因此该项目将为植物生理学家、哺乳动物学家、古生物学家和其他人提供非常重要的信息。对于所有对该地区的季节变化和对整体环境的影响感兴趣的科学家来说，每日的天气记录也将被证明是重要的。

Under the direction of Dr. John Harris, Ms Purity Kiura will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Her project is a study over the annual cycle by direct observation and stable isotope analysis of the food consumption of three groups of people with different subsistence strategies (the Dassanetch, Gabra and El-molo) living today to the East of Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya. The ultimate goal of this study is to provide an interpretive framework for investigating the subsistence strategies and diet of people believed to have occupied the region during the last 10,000 years (Holocene period). These three modern groups are not direct analogues for the Holocene peoples but do have diets similar to those proposed in the region by prior researchers. However, if by direct observations, including the analysis of food residues discarded in garbage pits, and by the study of stable isotope signatures of modern peoples that these are found to be discrete, then it may be possible to identify similar subsistence strategies in the regions Holocene record. Ms Kiura and her field assistants will conduct daily observations and interviews of the people's dietary behavior (food types, processing, preparing and sharing) while at the same time they will document the food remains that are discarded in garbage pits through the people's food processing and consumption activities. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to determine the food types consumed will be carried out on the people's hair, bone and teeth from the animals consumed by the people, and also the plants eaten by these animals. Daily weather observations (i.e. rain, humidity, temperature and wind patterns) will also be recorded to provide seasonal changes in the region.The data collected here will have broad implications beyond setting up a base for the study of the Holocene people's subsistence strategies. The data will also provide novel information on the dietary activities through the annual cycle of three modern groups of people that are poorly studied. Plants and animals in the region are poorly understood and this project will therefore provide very important information to plant physiologists, mammalogists, paleontologists and others. Daily weather records will also prove important to all scientists interested in the region's seasonal changes and effects on the overall environment.