Long Term Economic Change and the Development of Complexity in the Coast Salish Region of the Northwest Coast of North America

小规模的狩猎和采集社会是如何经历根本性的转变，最终产生了我们今天生活的复杂社会的？在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，华盛顿州立大学的科林·格里尔博士将在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省西南部进行三次实地考古研究，以回答这个问题。这个项目汇集了一个由考古学家、研究生、当地保护团体和来自美国和加拿大的土著居民组成的团队。野外工作将收集重建过去5000年来该地区长期经济变化所需的考古数据——在此期间，该地区的狩猎和采集民族经历了一些向更复杂的生活方式转变的深刻变化。西北海岸的史前史与将复杂社会的发展视为采用农业的产物的标准解释形成了鲜明对比。西北海岸的社会不从事农业，但发展出许多与复杂社会相关的特征，如集约储存经济、定居村庄、资源所有权制度、阶级分层和奴隶制。考古学家过去认为，鲑鱼在西北海岸经济中的重要性可能解释了复杂性的发展，因为鲑鱼的密集捕捞和储存类似于农业生产的劳动组织需求和生产力。然而，来自该地区的考古数据并没有指出鲑鱼是单一的主要资源，因此是史前复杂性的驱动因素。相反，最近的数据表明，生存资源的多样性支撑了这些更广泛的变化。此外，增加对粮食采购技术和基础设施投资的证据表明，在广泛的资源范围内，资源的集约化程度在狩猎采集者中很少见到。因此，该项目的首要目标是记录该地区的经济变化，以便更好地解释在没有农业的情况下复杂社会系统的发展。因此，该项目将收集有关经济实践的多条数据。一组六个海岸地貌包含考古遗址，记录了5000年的史前历史。这些遗址将被绘制成地图，以重建这些地貌的演变及其定居历史。挖掘将从贝壳堆中产生动物性材料，这些材料反映了随着时间的推移所使用的资源多样性的变化。对回收鲑鱼骨骼的古代DNA分析将提供一个物种概况，以评估该概况是否符合对密集储存经济的期望。将通过对这些地点的沼泽特征进行沉积物取样，收集记录植物资源利用及其通过故意焚烧景观而加剧的化石花粉和木炭数据。显然，如果不详细了解该地区的经济史前史，有关该地区社会复杂性出现的辩论就无法有效地向前推进。在这个项目中调查的沿海吐痰地点将提供以前西北海岸无与伦比的数据分辨率，并将推进社会科学中最长久的争论之一：复杂的社会是如何发展的？本研究的广泛影响包括显著的研究生参与，提供前沿材料分析的职业培训。该项目还包括与当地原住民和保护团体合作。这些组织成员的直接参与将促进能力建设，提供职业培训和促进数据共享，推动我们的共同目标，即在这个敏感和独特的岛屿地区建立长期经济实践模型，作为可持续生态管理的路线图。

How did small scale hunting and gathering societies undergo the fundamental transformations that ultimately produced the complex societies in which we live today? With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Colin Grier of Washington State University will conduct three field seasons of archaeological research in southwestern British Columbia, Canada directed towards answering this question. This project brings together a team of archaeologists, graduate students, local conservancy groups and aboriginal peoples from the USA and Canada. Field work will collect archaeological data needed to reconstruct long-term economic changes in this region over the last 5000 - the time period during which its hunting and gathering peoples underwent some profound changes towards more complex lifeways. The prehistory of the Northwest Coast represents a critical counterpoint to standard explanations that see the development of complex societies as an outgrowth of the adoption of agriculture. Northwest Coast societies did not practice agriculture, yet developed many features associated with complex societies, such as intensive storage economies, sedentary villages, resource ownership systems, class stratification and slavery.Archaeologists have in the past argued that the importance of salmon in Northwest Coast economies may explain the development of complexity, in that intensive salmon fishing and storage is akin to agricultural production in labor organization demands and productivity. However, archaeological data from the region do not point to salmon as the single focal resource and thus driver of complexity in prehistory. Rather, recent data indicate that a diversity of subsistence resources underpinned these broader changes. Moreover, evidence for increasing investments in the technology and infrastructure of food procurement suggests intensification across a broad spectrum of resources to a degree rarely seen amongst hunter-gatherers. The overarching goal of this project is therefore to document the economic changes in this region to better explain the development of complex social systems in the absence of agriculture.Accordingly, this project will collect multiple lines of data on economic practices. A set of six coastal landforms contain archaeological sites that document 5000 years of prehistory. These sites will be mapped to reconstruct the evolution of these landforms and their settlement history. Excavations will produce faunal material from shell middens that reflect the changing diversity of resources used over time. Ancient DNA analysis of recovered salmon bones will provide a species profile to evaluate whether that profile conforms to expectations for an intensive storage economy. Fossil pollen and charcoal data documenting the use of plant resources and their intensification through intentional burning of landscapes will be collected through sediment coring of bog features at these sites.It is clear that debates concerning the emergence of social complexity in the region cannot effectively move forward without a detailed understanding of its economic prehistory. The coastal spit sites investigated in this project will provide resolution of data previously unequalled for the Northwest Coast, and will advance one of the longest-standing debates in the social sciences: how did complex societies develop?The broader impacts of this study include significant graduate student involvement offering career training in cutting edge materials analysis. This project also involves partnering with local aboriginal First Nations and conservancy groups. Direct participation of members of these organizations will foster capacity building, provide career training and facilitate data sharing, moving forward our common objective of modeling long-term economic practices as a roadmap for sustainable ecological management in this sensitive and unique island region.