Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Foraging Variability in the Prehistoric Caribbean: A Paired Site Comparison from Carriacou, Grenada

博士论文改进补助金：史前加勒比地区的觅食变异性：格林纳达卡里亚库的配对地点比较

• 批准号: 0715388
• 负责人: Donald Grayson
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-15 至 2009-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0715388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Foraging

Christina Giovas will conduct excavation and analysis of animal remains from the archaeological sites of Grand Bay and Sabazan on the Caribbean island of Carriacou. This work will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Donald Grayson in conjunction with the internationally directed Carriacou Archaeological Field Project. Carriacou, part of the nation of Grenada, is a small (32 km2) island located in the southern Lesser Antilles. Until the Carriacou Archaeological Field Project began its investigation here, very little was known about the island's prehistoric past. Excavation has revealed that Grand Bay and Sabazan were coastal villages, occupied from around AD 400 - 1200, where people cultivated crops, hunted and fished, built large dwelling structures, made pottery, and engaged in ceremonial activities. This research contributes to efforts to establish a basic culture historical understanding for the island and surrounding area.Ms. Giovas will investigate the zooarchaeological record from these sites to evaluate the nature of the subsistence strategies their occupants pursued. The zooarchaeological record (bones and shells of animals discarded after consumption) represents the byproducts of human foraging activities and provides information about the types of animals people hunted, fished, and collected, the technology used to do so, the habitats exploited, and the ecological impacts incurred. The project focuses on poorly understood aspects of this foraging behavior, namely how behavioral differences shape resource exploitation strategies of groups within a larger population. For instance, will similar contexts result in similar foraging behavior? And, under what circumstances might divergent environmental impacts be expected to arise as a result? These questions are important to understanding social-historical processes as dynamic forces shaping landscapes, much as ecological forces do. Similarity in cultural and environmental constraints between research sites allows these issues to be addressed through a comparative analysis, where background variables, such as biodiversity, can be controlled. This project evaluates Grand Bay and Sabazan foraging strategies to determine if and how these differ and what cascading effects each may have had on the local ecology over time. It will enrich understanding of the most basic ways people interact with their environment, through meeting subsistence needs, and contribute to anthropological theory by explaining human behavior and decision-making in this context. More broadly, this research has important implications for contemporary issues of species extinction and biodiversity. Enhanced understanding of how resource exploitation strategies are conditioned may allow scientists to establish more precise causal links between human actions and environmental consequences over time. Results from this research may help with management decisions in modern-day conservation biology efforts by deepening understanding of the role that prehistoric peoples played in shaping modern environments. Public outreach in Grenada will include a museum display relating findings on prehistoric diet to contemporary island foodways. Public talks will raise awareness of Carriacou's rich prehistory and the importance of community-level involvement in safeguarding this archaeological heritage. Research findings will be incorporated into teaching curricula and disseminated to the archaeological community through publication and conference presentations. Lastly, the project will provide the author continued graduate training in advanced techniques of zooarchaeological analysis.

克里斯蒂娜·吉奥瓦斯将对加勒比海卡里亚库岛的大湾和萨巴赞考古遗址的动物遗骸进行挖掘和分析。这项工作将在唐纳德·格雷森博士的监督下与国际指导的卡里亚库考古实地项目一起进行。卡里亚库岛是格林纳达的一部分，是一个位于小安的列斯群岛南部的小岛（32平方公里）。在卡里亚库考古现场项目开始在这里进行调查之前，人们对该岛的史前历史知之甚少。挖掘显示，大湾和萨巴赞是沿海村庄，大约从公元400年到1200年，人们在那里种植庄稼，狩猎和捕鱼，建造大型住宅结构，制作陶器，并从事仪式活动。这项研究有助于建立对岛屿及周边地区的基本文化历史认识。Giovas将调查这些遗址的动物考古记录，以评估其居住者所追求的生存策略的性质。动物考古记录（食用后丢弃的动物骨骼和贝壳）代表了人类觅食活动的副产品，并提供了有关人类狩猎、捕捞和收集的动物类型、使用的技术、开发的栖息地以及产生的生态影响的信息。该项目侧重于这种觅食行为的鲜为人知的方面，即行为差异如何影响更大群体中群体的资源开发策略。例如，相似的环境会导致相似的觅食行为吗？在什么情况下可能会产生不同的环境影响？这些问题对于理解社会历史进程是塑造景观的动态力量非常重要，就像生态力量一样。研究地点之间文化和环境约束的相似性使得这些问题可以通过比较分析来解决，其中背景变量，如生物多样性，可以得到控制。该项目评估了大湾和萨巴赞的觅食策略，以确定这些策略是否不同，如何不同，以及随着时间的推移，每种策略对当地生态可能产生的连锁效应。它将通过满足生存需求来丰富人们与环境相互作用的最基本方式的理解，并通过在这种背景下解释人类行为和决策，为人类学理论做出贡献。更广泛地说，这项研究对当代物种灭绝和生物多样性问题具有重要意义。加强对资源开发战略如何受到制约的了解，可能使科学家能够在人类行为与长期环境后果之间建立更精确的因果关系。通过加深对史前人类在塑造现代环境中所扮演角色的理解，这项研究的结果可能有助于现代保护生物学工作中的管理决策。格林纳达的公共宣传将包括一个博物馆，展示史前饮食与当代岛屿饮食方式的相关发现。公众讲座将提高人们对卡里亚库丰富的史前历史的认识，以及社区参与保护这一考古遗产的重要性。研究结果将纳入教学课程，并通过出版物和会议发言向考古界传播。最后，该项目将为作者提供动物考古分析先进技术的研究生培训。