Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Food Practices and Memory in Banda, Ghana, AD 1000-Present

在卡拉·西诺波利博士的指导下，阿曼达·洛根将在加纳中西部的班达地区进行考古研究。在Ann B博士的指导下，在该领域进行的既往和持续工作。斯塔尔记录了公元上个千年班达越来越多地卷入全球体系的几次转变。主要的政治经济变化包括从撒哈拉到大西洋的长途贸易的重新定位，阿桑特和英国帝国的接管，以及向市场经济的过渡，每一个都使人们接触到各种新的作物和生计做法。洛根将调查人们如何将新作物纳入日常实践中的每一个这些转变在政治经济记录1）的过程中，新作物和伴随的技术被纳入，2）这种变化的速度和程度，以及3）它们是否与政治经济和环境条件的变化相关。从洛根在2009年进行的关于生活记忆中食物变化的民族考古学研究开始，她将及时向后移动，绘制食物实践的变化和连续性，以重建“家谱”或食物实践的历史。人种学访谈将与作为长期班达研究项目的一部分挖掘的四个考古遗址的较长的变化记录相联系，这些考古遗址描绘了从公元前2000年到公元前2000年的政治经济背景。公元1000-1920年，并提供了来自可比背景的考古植物学样本。最近在古民族植物学方法的发展提供了手段来跟踪食品加工的做法随着时间的推移，允许检查食品变化作为一个历史的社会过程。提供资金支持分析考古植物学遗迹（大型遗迹，植硅体，淀粉粒和木炭）和热释光日期。这项研究将有助于人类学和考古学的讨论，围绕生存变化的性质，看看新的食物是如何在地方一级的重新语境。这一点很重要，因为食物不仅是人类生存的基本要素，而且还提供了一个考古学标记，可以追溯社会是如何改变的，以及它们是如何适应新的文化影响的。它提供了一个窗口，了解为什么一些新的影响被接受，另一些被拒绝，还有一些被修改以适应新的文化环境。由于一系列连续的外部接触及其极其多样的性质，班达为这种研究提供了一个极好的地理区域。这一问题与当今世界许多发展中地区有关，这些地区的粮食系统已经并正在受到全球压力的影响，因此这项研究对当今问题具有潜在的应用价值。这些结果可能对发展机构有用，因为它们对生存变化的长期影响和方向以及与政治和环境压力的关系表示关切。

Updated Abstract for Award #1041948Under the direction of Dr. Carla Sinopoli, Amanda Logan will conduct archaeological research in the Banda region of west central Ghana. Previous and ongoing work in the area under the direction of Dr. Ann B. Stahl has documented several shifts over the last millennium AD as Banda became increasingly entangled in the global system. Major political economic changes include a reorientation of long-distance trade from across the Sahara to the Atlantic, takeover by the Asante and British empires, and the transition to market economies, each of which exposed people to a variety of new crops and subsistence practices. Logan will investigate how people incorporated new crops into daily practice during each of these shifts in political economy by documenting 1) the processes by which new crops and accompanying techniques were incorporated, 2) the rate and extent of such changes, and 3) whether or not they correlate with shifts in political economic and environmental conditions. Beginning with an ethnoarchaeological study of food change within living memory that Logan conducted in 2009, she will move backwards in time, mapping change and continuity in food practices in order to reconstruct "genealogies" or histories of food practice. Ethnographic interviews will be linked with longer records of change from four archaeological sites excavated as part of the long term Banda Research Project, which delineate the political economic backdrop from ca. AD 1000-1920, and provide archaeobotanical samples from comparable contexts. Recent methodological developments in paleoethnobotany provide the means to trace food processing practices over time, allowing for an examination of food change as an historical social process. Funds are provided to support analysis of archaeobotanical remains (macro-remains, phytoliths, starch grains, and charcoal) and thermoluminescence dates. This research will contribute to anthropological and archaeological discussions surrounding the nature of subsistence change by looking at how new foods are recontextualized at the local level. This is important because food is not only an essential element for human survival but it also provides an archaeological marker to trace how societies are altered and how they adapt to new cultural influences. It provides a window into understanding why some new influences are accepted, others rejected, and some modified to fit into a new cultural milieu. Because of the successive series of external contacts and their extremely varied nature Banda provides an excellent geographical region for such research. The issue is relevant in many developing regions of the world today whose food systems have been and are being impacted by global pressures, and thus the research has potential application to present day issues. The results will potentially be useful to development agencies, who express concern for long-term affects and directions of subsistence change and the relationship to political and environmental pressures.