Doctoral Dissertation Research: Testing the Subsistence Model for the Adoption of Ceramic Technology among Coastal Foragers of Southeastern Brazil

许多人认为，狩猎采集群体将陶器用于生存目的，如储存和烹饪/食品加工。其他人认为，早期陶器支持一种社会分化制度，在这种制度下，它被用作竞争性宴会中的威望物品，或者被用作该团体精英成员的器皿。数千年来，一群群渔民在巴西大西洋沿岸开发丰富的海洋和陆地资源，建造大型贝类土堆，称为桑巴基，人们在那里建造村庄，埋葬死者。陶器最早出现在1000年前的桑巴齐遗址，当时没有其他明显的技术变化。这项研究将检验桑巴基人群体采用陶瓷技术的生存模式，并对巴西东南部公元前5000-600年间沿海觅食动物的饮食进行全面研究。这项研究检验了这样一种假设，即考古记录中陶器的出现表明了饮食或食品加工技术的转变。调查人员将使用巴西圣卡塔利纳州和里约热内卢州考古遗址中的人类骨骼和牙齿遗骸来调查沿海觅食者的饮食是否随着陶器的采用而改变。这些种群是这项研究的理想群体，因为它们在很长一段时间内开发了大西洋沿岸的海洋和陆地资源，并保持了环境的稳定。研究人员将分析从骨胶原和磷灰石中提取的稳定碳和氮同位素比率，以检查陶器引入前后动植物消费的来源。这项研究将首次直接探索沿海觅食群体在公元前1000年开始种植玉米的可能性。研究人员将使用纹理分析对牙齿微磨损进行研究，这种方法将创建牙齿表面咬合方面的3D图像。该方法观测值误差率低，可量化、可重复性好。微磨损数据将被用来评估前陶瓷职业和陶瓷职业之间的饮食变化，以及确定食品加工技术是否随着陶器的采用而发生变化。这项研究将解决人类学中有关史前遗址陶器的社会政治和经济相关性的理论问题，并探索久居的狩猎-采集者中技术变化的社会动力。它还将提供有助于沿海环境史前适应模型的饮食数据。该项目将为研究生提供以博士身份从事未来人类学研究所需的培训和资格，并将为今后与巴西考古学家和人类学家进行合作调查奠定基础。这篇论文的结果将在科学会议和同行评议的期刊上向更广泛的学术界展示。

Many argue that hunter-gatherer groups adopt pottery for subsistence purposes, such as storage and cooking/food processing. Others argue that early pottery supports a system of social differentiation, whereby it is used as a prestige item in competitive feasting or as serving vessels for elite members of the group. For thousands of years, groups of fisher-hunter-gatherers exploited abundant marine and terrestrial resources along the Atlantic coast of Brazil, and constructed large shellfish mounds, called sambaquis, where people built villages and buried their dead. Pottery first appeared at sambaqui sites 1000 years ago, with no other evident change in technology. This research will test the subsistence model for the adoption of ceramic technology among sambaqui groups, and provide a comprehensive study of coastal forager diet in southeastern Brazil from 5000 to 600 BP. This study examines the assumption that the appearance of pottery in the archaeological record indicates a shift in diet or food processing techniques.The investigators will use human skeletal and dental remains from archaeological sites in the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro to investigate whether the diet of coastal foragers changed with the adoption of pottery. These populations are ideal for this study because they exploited marine and terrestrial resources along the Atlantic coast over a long and environmentally stable period of time. The researchers will analyze stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios derived from bone collagen and apatite to examine sources of plant and animal consumption before and after the introduction of pottery. This study will be the first to directly explore the possibility that coastal foraging groups began cultivating maize at 1000 BP. The researchers will conduct a study of dental microwear using texture analysis, a method that will create a 3D image of the occlusal aspect of the tooth surface. This method has a low rate of observer error, and is quantifiable and repeatable. Microwear data will be used to evaluate changes in diet between Pre-Ceramic and Ceramic occupations, as well as determine if changes in food processing techniques occurred with the adoption of pottery. This study will address theoretical problems in anthropology regarding the sociopolitical and economic correlates of pottery at prehistoric sites, and explore the social dynamics of technological change among sedentary hunter-gatherers. It will also provide dietary data that will contribute to models of prehistoric adaptation in coastal environments. This project will supply the graduate student with the training and qualifications necessary to pursue future anthropological research as a PhD, and will lay a foundation for future collaborative investigations with archaeologists and anthropologists in Brazil. The results of this dissertation will be presented to the broader academic community at scientific meetings and peer-reviewed journals.