Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Impermanent Versus Intensive Agriculture: Population, Mobility, and Village Formation on the Southern Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico.

在布鲁斯·B·哈克尔博士的监督下，罗伯特·鲍尔斯将调查史前农业实践及其对新墨西哥州北部现为班德尔国家纪念碑的普埃布兰农业社区的影响。研究的重点是公元1150至1400年间。在这一时期，成千上万的普韦布洛移民从查科峡谷、梅萨维德和科罗拉多高原的其他地方来到这里。普布洛恩夫妇面临着两个迫在眉睫的挑战：如何在恶劣、干旱的环境中成功地种植玉米、豆类和南瓜作物，以及如何保护宝贵的农田。移民们实践了一种简单的旱地农业，被称为“刀耕火种”，通过开垦松树和刺柏林地来耕种。几年后，当产量开始下降时，老田被休耕，新田被建立起来。到了12世纪末，持续的人口增长和越来越多的休耕减少了可用的农田，造成了对土地的激烈竞争。对简单农业社会的人类学研究表明，解决这一困境的一个办法是“强化”农业--投入更多的劳动力和技术来提高土地的生产力。许多学者认为，集约化提供了发展定居村庄所需的必要经济稳定，就像17世纪初出现在班德利耶的那些村庄一样。另一种解释也值得考虑。西南部气候恶劣、干旱，因干旱而臭名昭著。如果可靠的水源得不到保证，就像班德利耶那样，额外的劳动力和简单的技术改进可能不会有效。设计一种社会解决方案可能更简单：通过减少获得土地的机会来减少对土地的竞争。从这个角度来看，更有可能的是，村庄的发展是为了保护农田不受外来者的侵扰。为了了解普韦布洛人如何解决他们的农业危机，将调查三个假设：1)简单的刀耕火种农业保持不变；2)更大的劳动力和技术投资加强了农业；3)刀耕火种农业被集约化农业补充，产生了耕作实践的结合。这些假设将使用现有的信息和来自史前田野的新数据进行评估，这些数据表明：1)使用时间和时间；2)位置、大小和技术改进的变化；3)土壤结构和养分的变化；4)土壤侵蚀的差异。这些关键特征将决定农田是用于刀耕火种还是集约化耕作。将收集花粉、土壤和养分数据，以衡量农业的影响。这项研究具有智力价值和广泛的影响。如果像一些研究表明的那样，刀耕火种的农业被证明是主导的，那么更有可能的是，村庄的发展是为了保护成员的土地权利。通过重新审视农业在村庄发展中的作用，这项研究将增进对普埃布兰社会的了解，以及促进村庄演变的因素。这项研究还将帮助国家公园管理局在班德利耶国家纪念碑向30万年游客解释公园的史前历史。最后，班德利耶的许多土壤被严重侵蚀，这一后果部分归因于普埃布兰农业。对帮助造成这种不稳定景观的耕作方法的了解的提高，可能会提供治愈它所需的洞察。

Under supervision of Dr. Bruce B. Huckell, Robert Powers will investigate prehistoric farming practices and their impact on rapidly growing Puebloan farming communities in what is now Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico. The research focuses on the period from A.D. 1150 to 1400. During this era thousands of Pueblo immigrants arrived from Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and other parts of the Colorado Plateau. The Puebloans faced two immediate challenges: how to successfully produce crops of corn, beans, and squash in a harsh, arid environment, and how to protect valuable farmland. The immigrants practiced a simple form of dry-land agriculture, known as "slash-and-burn," by clearing pinyon and juniper woodlands for their fields. After a few years, when yields began to decline, old fields were fallowed, and new ones were established. By the late 1200s, continuing population growth and increasing fallow reduced available farmland, creating intense competition for land. Anthropological studies of simple farming societies show one solution to this dilemma is to "intensify" agriculture -- to invest more labor and technology into making land productive. Many scholars have argued that intensification provides the necessary economic stability needed to develop sedentary villages like those that appear in Bandelier in the early 1300s. An alternative explanation also merits consideration. The Southwest has a harsh, arid climate, infamous for its droughts. If a dependable source of water cannot be guaranteed, as it cannot in Bandelier, additional labor and simple technological improvements may not be effective. It may be simpler to devise a social solution: reduce competition for land by reducing access to it. From this perspective, it is more likely that villages developed to protect agricultural land from outsiders. To learn how the Pueblos resolved their agricultural crisis, three hypotheses will be investigated: 1) simple, slash and burn agriculture was maintained; 2) agriculture was intensified by greater investment in labor and technology; 3) slash-and-burn agriculture was supplemented by intensive agriculture, resulting in a combination of farming practices.The hypotheses will be evaluated using existing information and new data from prehistoric fields indicating: 1) the time and length of use; 2) changes in location, size and technological improvements; 3) changes in soil structure and nutrients, and 4) differences in soil erosion. These key characteristics will determine whether fields were used for slash-and-burn or intensive farming. Pollen, soil and nutrient data will be collected in order to measure the effects of agriculture.The study has intellectual merit and broad impacts. If slash-and-burn farming proves dominant, as some research suggests, it is more likely that villages developed to protect member rights to land. By re-examining the role of agriculture in village development, the research will improve understanding of Puebloan society, and the factors contributing to village evolution. The research will also help National Park Service interpreters at Bandelier National Monument explain the park's prehistory to its 300,000 annual visitors. Finally, many soils at Bandelier are severely eroded, a consequence partially attributable to Puebloan farming. Improved knowledge of the farming practices which helped create this unstable landscape, may provide insights needed to heal it.