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

论文改进补助金：斯瓦希里城市化和粮食生产：来自坦桑尼亚奔巴岛公元 800-1600 年的古民族植物学视角

• 批准号: 0431137
• 负责人: Gayle Fritz
• 金额: $ 1.18万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-06-01 至 2006-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0431137&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Swahili; Urbanization

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.

在盖尔·J·弗里茨博士的监督下，莎拉·沃尔肖将收集和分析来自坦桑尼亚奔巴岛考古发掘的古代斯瓦希里植物性食物生产和消费的数据。烧焦的植物遗骸提供了有关古代饮食以及与植物加工相关的活动的最直接信息：收获、脱粒、风选、储存和烹饪。 Walshaw 女士将与 Adria LaViolette 博士领导的一个由 NSF 资助的项目合作，从彭巴岛的五个考古遗址收集烧焦的植物材料，这些遗址代表了从小村庄定居点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骸，并对斯瓦希里自给农民进行调查，以确定过去如何加工小米、高粱和大米等农作物。世界许多地区城市的崛起伴随着粮食生产的集中控制，城市管理者控制谷物的加​​工、储存和再分配。我们关于城市粮食生产的大部分知识都来自对等级组织城市的研究。因此，撒哈拉以南非洲更加平等的社会为城市粮食生产提供了比较视角。沃尔肖将调查植物性食品生产在斯瓦希里城市化中的作用，以确定植物生产是否仍然是主要的农村家庭活动，或者是否在城市中发展了不受家庭控制的专门生产领域。这项研究为了解城市化期间斯瓦希里农村大多数人的生活提供了一个窗口，这可能揭示出与从民族历史和富裕城市社区考古学中得出的阿拉伯人主导的模型截然不同的观点。这项研究是对撒哈拉以南非洲植物性食品生产进行的为数不多的综合研究之一，并将极大地有助于我们了解总体上相对平等的食品生产系统，特别是斯瓦希里植物的使用。此外，东非植物的收藏严重缺乏，因此在本研究期间收集的现代植物样本对于未来的研究至关重要。这项研究将有助于国内外的研究生培训。沃尔肖将指导坦桑尼亚考古学学生和教师进行考古植物遗骸的恢复和分析，这是当前大学课程中尚未开发的方面。她还将与拉维奥莱特博士和其他团队成员一起向现场周围的社区（包括当地的一所中学）展示考古数据。最后，在记录古代斯瓦希里植物食品生产系统时，沃尔肖将发现在亚洲（大米、椰子、香蕉、芒果）和新世界（玉米、木薯）农作物引入之前如何利用本土资源，这些农作物构成了当今非洲的主食。非洲的土著粮食资源普遍未得到充分利用，增加对当地资源的依赖可能会改善严重有限的粮食基础。例如，东非传统作物小米有潜力成为一种重要的断奶食品，可以降低婴儿死亡率，但目前小米很少种植。这项研究可能有助于我们了解非洲作物使用量下降的原因以及它们在今天的用途。