Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pastoralism's Legacy: Zooarchaeological Investigations in the Southwest Cape, South Africa

博士论文研究：畜牧业的遗产：南非西南开普省的动物考古调查

• 批准号: 0313566
• 负责人: Donald Grayson
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-06-15 至 2005-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0313566&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Pastoralism; Legacy

The earliest written impressions of indigenous herdsmen in southern Africa attest to the vast size of their herds. When a settlement was founded at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, herders reportedly drove 20,000 cattle and sheep into the area. A century later, farms covered the Cape and the indigenous herders' way of life was nearly over. While European settlement rapidly transformed this landscape, the Europeans themselves had landed on a human-modified landscape that had witnessed a long period of hunter-gatherer occupation and the arrival of pastoralists and their herds 2000 years ago. Supervised by Donald K. Grayson, Carol J. Frey will examine the role of pastoralists in structuring prehistoric biotic communities in this region. Ecologists and conservationists increasingly recognize that the shapes and courses of modern ecosystems are plotted by the legacy of prior human land-use and long-term community dynamics. Further, they recognize that even small-scale human societies are vital components of these histories. Understanding the anthropogenic impacts of small-scale societies requires long-term analysis of ecological change and human responses to that change. This research begins by predicting community dynamics which can be impacted by the introduction of herding economies, including species richness and diversity, competitive interactions and predator-prey interactions. Tracking change in biotic communities involves assessing the live condition, relative abundances and population dynamics of the animals in those communities. Using vertebrate faunal assemblages from two archaeological sites in the southwestern Cape, South Africa (Die Kelders and Kasteelberg), biotic change, and human responses to that change, will be measured using a range of zooarchaeological techniques, including skeletal morphometry, demographic profiling, prey type abundances and skeletal element abundances. While the results will be of interest to archaeologists concerned with human history and prehistory in southern Africa, they will be equally relevant to those more generally interested in the development of pastoralist economies, as well as to those interested in understanding the impacts of herders on today's landscapes.This project aims to establish ways of examining long-term ecological change through analysis of archaeological animal populations. If successful, these methods will be applicable to modern, historic, or ancient contexts, and will allow ecological change to be studied long after it has occurred. With some adjustment, the methods will be applicable to virtually any terrestrial animal species. The theory and methodology used here are not based in value judgments about human-caused ecological changes; positive, or biodiversity-enhancing, impacts are just as probable as negative ones. Anthropologists armed with this toolkit will be able to contribute to understanding the human dimension of conservation efforts in countries where such small-scale communities reside. Given today's international conservation and land-management issues, it is increasingly important turn our attention to the places where history and ecology merge, and where small-scale human societies are crucial agents of change.

南部非洲土著牧民最早的书面印象证明了他们的牧群规模庞大。1652年在好望角建立了一个定居点，据报道牧民将20 000头牛羊赶到该地区。一个世纪后，农场覆盖了好望角，土著牧民的生活方式几乎结束了。虽然欧洲人的定居迅速改变了这一景观，但欧洲人自己也降落在一个人类改造的景观上，见证了长期的狩猎采集占领和2000年前牧民及其牛群的到来。导演：Donald K. Grayson，Carol J. Frey将研究牧民在构建该地区史前生物群落中的作用。生态学家和自然资源保护主义者越来越认识到，现代生态系统的形状和进程是由先前人类土地使用和长期社区动态的遗产所绘制的。此外，他们认识到，即使是小规模的人类社会也是这些历史的重要组成部分。要了解小规模社会的人为影响，就需要对生态变化和人类对这种变化的反应进行长期分析。这项研究首先预测社区动态，可以通过引入放牧经济，包括物种丰富度和多样性，竞争的相互作用和捕食者-猎物的相互作用的影响。 跟踪生物群落的变化涉及评估这些群落中动物的生活条件、相对丰度和种群动态。 使用脊椎动物区系组合从两个考古遗址在西南角，南非（模具Kelders和Kasteelberg），生物的变化，以及人类对这种变化的反应，将使用一系列的动物考古学技术，包括骨骼形态测量，人口分析，猎物类型丰度和骨骼元素丰度。虽然研究结果将使关注南部非洲人类历史和史前史的考古学家感兴趣，但对那些对游牧经济发展更感兴趣的人以及对了解牧民对当今景观的影响感兴趣的人来说，这些结果也同样相关，该项目旨在通过分析考古动物种群，建立研究长期生态变化的方法。如果成功，这些方法将适用于现代，历史或古代背景，并将允许生态变化发生后很长时间内进行研究。经过一些调整，这些方法将适用于几乎任何陆生动物物种。这里使用的理论和方法不是基于对人类引起的生态变化的价值判断;积极的或生物多样性增强的影响与消极的影响一样可能。拥有这一工具包的人类学家将能够帮助了解这些小规模社区居住的国家的保护工作的人的方面。考虑到当今的国际保护和土地管理问题，将我们的注意力转向历史和生态融合的地方，以及小规模人类社会是变革的关键因素的地方越来越重要。