Dissertation Improvement Grant: Swahili Urbanization and Food Production: Paleoethnobotanical Perspectives from Pemba Island, Tanzania AD 800-1600

在Gayle J.Fritz博士的监督下，Sarah Walshaw将收集和分析坦桑尼亚奔巴岛考古发掘得出的古代斯瓦希里植物食物生产和消费的数据。烧焦的植物残骸提供了关于古代饮食以及与植物加工相关的活动的最直接的信息：收获、脱粒、筛选、储存和烹饪。与美国国家科学基金会资助的一个由Adria LaViolette博士领导的项目合作，Walshaw女士将从Pemba的五个考古遗址收集烧焦的植物材料，这些遗址代表着从小村庄聚落到人口稠密社区的过渡(公元800-1600年)。她还将收集现代参考标本，以帮助鉴定考古植物遗迹，并在斯瓦希里自给自足的农民中进行调查，以确定小米、高粱和大米等作物过去可能是如何加工的。粮食生产的中央控制伴随着世界许多地区城市的崛起，由城市管理者控制谷物的加工、储存和再分配。我们关于城市食品生产的许多知识都来自于对等级组织城市的研究。因此，撒哈拉以南非洲的平等主义社会为城市粮食生产提供了一种比较的视角。沃尔肖将调查植物食品生产在斯瓦希里城市化中的作用，以确定植物生产是仍然主要是农村的国内活动，还是不受家庭控制的专门生产领域在城市发展。这项研究为了解斯瓦希里农村大多数人在城市化过程中的生活提供了一个窗口，这可能会揭示出与阿拉伯主导的模式截然不同的观点，该模式来自民族史和富裕城市社区的考古。这项研究是对撒哈拉以南非洲植物粮食生产的为数不多的全面研究之一，将大大有助于我们了解总体上相对平等的粮食生产系统，特别是斯瓦希里语植物的使用。此外，东非植物的收集非常缺乏，因此在本研究期间收集的现代植物样本对未来的研究至关重要。这项研究将有助于国内外研究生的培养。沃尔肖将指导坦桑尼亚考古学的学生和教职员工恢复和分析考古植物遗骸，这是当前大学课程中一个不发达的方面。她还将与拉维奥莱特博士和其他团队成员一起，向田野遗址周围的社区介绍考古数据，其中包括当地的一所中学。最后，在记录古老的斯瓦希里植物食物生产系统时，Walshaw将发现在亚洲(水稻、椰子、香蕉、芒果)和新大陆(玉米、木薯)作物被引进之前，当地资源是如何被利用的，这些作物构成了今天非洲饮食的主食。在非洲，本土粮食资源普遍得不到充分利用，增加对当地资源的依赖可能会改善严重受限的粮食基础。例如，传统的东非作物小米有可能成为一种关键的断奶食品，可以降低婴儿死亡率，但今天几乎没有种植的小米。这项研究可能有助于我们理解为什么非洲农作物的使用量下降，以及它们在今天可能有什么用处。

Under the supervision of Dr. Gayle J. Fritz, Sarah Walshaw will collect and analyze data on ancient Swahili plant food production and consumption derived from archaeological excavations on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Charred plant remains offer the most direct information about ancient diets as well as the activities associated with plant processing: harvesting, threshing, winnowing, storage, and cooking. Working with an NSF-funded project led by Dr. Adria LaViolette, Ms. Walshaw will collect charred plant material from five archaeological sites on Pemba that represent the transition (AD 800-1600) from small village settlements to densely populated communities. She will also collect modern reference specimens to aid in the identification of archaeological plant remains, and conduct surveys among Swahili subsistence farmers to determine how crops such as millet, sorghum, and rice may have been processed in the past.Centralized control of food production accompanied the rise of cities in many regions of the world, with city administrators controlling the processing, storage, and redistribution of grains. Much of our knowledge about urban food production derives from studies of hierarchically organized cities. The more egalitarian societies of sub-Saharan Africa, therefore, offer a comparative perspective on urban food production. Walshaw will investigate the role of plant food production in Swahili urbanization to determine whether plant production remained a predominantly rural, domestic activity, or whether specialized domains of production outside the control of the household developed in cities. This research offers a window into the lives of the Swahili rural majority during urbanization, which may reveal a considerably different view than the Arab-dominated model drawn from ethnohistory and the archaeology of wealthy urban communities. This research represents one of the few comprehensive studies of plant food production from sub-Saharan Africa, and will contribute significantly to our understanding of relatively egalitarian food production systems in general, and Swahili plant use in particular. Additionally, collections of East African plants are significantly lacking, therefore the modern plant samples collected during this study are essential to future research. This study will assist in graduate student training both here and abroad. Walshaw will instruct Tanzanian archaeology students and faculty in the recovery and analysis of archaeological plant remains, an underdeveloped aspect of the current university curriculum. She will also join Dr. LaViolette and additional team members in presenting archaeological data to the communities surrounding the field sites, including a local secondary school. Finally, in documenting the ancient Swahili plant food production system, Walshaw will discover how indigenous resources were used prior to the introduction of the Asian (rice, coconut, banana, mango) and New World (corn, cassava) crops that form the staples of African diets today. Indigenous food resources are generally underutilized in Africa, and increased reliance upon local resources may improve a critically limiting food base. For example, finger millet, a traditional East African crop, has the potential to be a critical weaning food that could reduce infant mortality, yet finger millet is scarcely grown today. This study may help us understand why African crops declined in use and how they might be useful today.