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

克里斯蒂娜·乔瓦斯将对加勒比海卡里亚库岛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。Carriacou是格林纳达的一部分，是位于小安的列斯群岛南部的一个小岛（32平方公里）。直到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。挖掘表明，大湾和沙巴赞是沿海村庄，大约在公元400 - 1200年被占领，人们种植作物，狩猎和捕鱼，建造大型住宅结构，制作陶器，并从事仪式活动。这项研究有助于努力建立一个基本的文化历史的理解，为岛屿和周边地区。Giovas女士将调查这些网站的动物考古记录，以评估其居住者追求的生存策略的性质。动物考古学记录（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，开发的栖息地以及所产生的生态影响的信息。该项目的重点是对这种觅食行为知之甚少的方面，即行为差异如何在更大的人口中塑造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？在什么情况下会产生不同的环境影响？这些问题对于理解社会历史过程是塑造景观的动态力量非常重要，就像生态力量一样。研究地点之间的文化和环境制约因素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，可以控制。该项目评估了大湾和Sabazan觅食策略，以确定这些策略是否以及如何不同，以及随着时间的推移，每个策略可能对当地生态产生的级联效应。它将丰富人们与环境互动的最基本方式的理解，通过满足生存需求，并通过解释人类行为和决策在这种情况下，有助于人类学理论。 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的制约因素的了解，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。这项研究的结果可能有助于现代保护生物学工作的管理决策，加深对史前人类在塑造现代环境中所起作用的理解。格林纳达的公共宣传活动将包括一个博物馆展览，将史前饮食的发现与当代岛屿的饮食方式联系起来。公开讲座将提高人们对卡里亚库丰富的史前史的认识，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介绍向考古界传播。最后，该项目将为作者提供动物考古学分析先进技术的继续研究生培训。

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.