Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Agricultural Intensification and the Emergence of Complex Societies on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia

在大卫·布朗曼博士的指导下，玛丽亚·布鲁诺将研究农业集约化的过程及其在玻利维亚塔拉科半岛形成时期（公元前1500年至公元500年）早期政治发展中的作用。塔拉科半岛位于南美洲安第斯山脉的的的喀喀湖盆地的南岸，先前的考古调查表明，第一个区域政体——塔拉科半岛政体——出现于公元前250年。澄清这种早期区域政体的发展，对于理解该盆地第一个国家级社会——公元500年的蒂瓦纳库的出现是必要的。几位研究人员认为，农业生产的增加在这些早期政体和蒂瓦纳库斯邦的发展中发挥了核心作用。据推测，新兴精英通过增加农产品生产创造了经济盈余。然而，目前对的的喀喀湖流域农业集约化的理解，仅仅是基于对定居模式、石器工具使用和作物植物的古民族植物学分析的研究。尽管这些研究记录了整个形成时期农业生产的增加，但现有的数据集过于粗糙，无法验证农业生产变化与随之而来的社会政治发展之间的假设联系。布鲁诺建议通过对玻利维亚塔拉科半岛的现代农业实践进行民族植物学研究来解决这个问题。这项研究将有助于分析和解释来自同一地区Kala Uyuni和Yanapata两个形成时期遗址的考古植物遗骸。布鲁诺将在塔拉科半岛的艾马拉社区进行为期13个月的民族植物学田野调查，包括采访、参与农业活动和农民指导的植物收集，他将创建一个反映当地农业生产的比较花卉收集。人种学上的比较收集不仅将为鉴定考古植物分类群提供必要的数据，而且还将提供关于人类活动的推论数据，这些活动在植物形态和生态中创造了可观察的模式。这些数据将有助于分析从卡拉乌尤尼和亚纳帕塔的塔拉科考古项目挖掘中恢复的考古植物遗骸。克里斯汀·哈斯托夫和马修·班迪。结合古民族植物学分析技术，布鲁诺将追踪所有植物分类群在不同考古背景下的频率。特别地，将分析作物和杂草植物分类群，以阐明形成期农业集约化的时间和特征。碳化植物遗骸的AMS测年将允许将农业变化与有记录的气候和社会政治变化进行精确比较。这种综合方法将使布鲁诺能够澄清农业集约化在塔拉科半岛政体发展中的作用，并有助于更一般的人类学理论的农业集约化和复杂社会的出现。

Under the supervision of Dr. David Browman, Maria Bruno will investigate theprocess of agricultural intensification and it role in the development of earlypolities during the Formative Period (1500 B.C. - A.D. 500) on the TaracoPeninsula, Bolivia. The Taraco Peninsula is located in on the southern shoresof the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andean South America and previousarchaeological investigations here suggest that the first regional polity, theTaraco Peninsula Polity, emerged c. 250 B.C. Clarifying the development of suchearly regional polities is necessary for understanding the emergence of thebasin's first state-level society, Tiwanaku, c. A.D. 500.Several researchers suggest that increased agricultural production played acentral role in the development of these early polities and the Tiwanakustate. It is hypothesized that emerging elites created an economic surplus byorchestrating the increased production of agricultural goods. Currentunderstanding of agricultural intensification in the Lake Titicaca Basin,however, is based only on studies of settlement patterns, stone tool use, andpaleoethnobotanical analysis of crop plants. Although these studies documentincreasing agricultural production throughout the Formative, available datasets are too coarse-grained to verify postulated links between changes inagricultural production and concomitant socio-political developments. Brunoproposes to resolve this issue by conducting an ethnobotanical study of present-day agricultural practices on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia. This study willaid in the analysis and interpretation of archaeological plant remains from twoFormative period sites, Kala Uyuni and Yanapata, from the same region.Through 13 months of ethnobotanical fieldwork among Aymara communities on theTaraco Peninsula, including interviews, participation in agriculturalactivities, and farmer-guided plant collections, Bruno will create acomparative floral collection that reflects local agricultural production. Theethnographically derived comparative collection will not only provide datanecessary for the identification of archaeological plant taxa, but also willfurnish corollary data on human activities that create observable patterns inplant morphology and ecology. These data will aid in the analysis of archaeological plant remains recovered from the Taraco Archaeological Project's excavations at Kala Uyuni andYanapata, directed by Drs. Christine Hastorf and Matthew Bandy. Using acombination of paleoethnobotanical analytical techniques, Bruno will track thefrequency of all plant taxa through time across different archaeologicalcontexts. In particular, crops and weedy plant taxa will be analyzed toelucidate the timing and character of Formative period agriculturalintensification. AMS dating of carbonized plant remains will allow precisecomparison of agricultural change with documented climatic and socio-politicalchanges. This integrative approach will permit Bruno to clarify the role ofagricultural intensification in the development of the Taraco Peninsula Polity,as well as contribute to more general anthropological theories of agriculturalintensification and the emergence of complex societies.