Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Social Structure, Ecological Organization and Individual Action at Three Swahili Settlements

在Adria LaViolette博士的监督下，Jack Stoetzel将进行一项考古调查，以重建公元600年至1600年之间斯瓦希里人与沿海生态系统之间的关系。斯瓦希里人的身份认同在公元第一个千年期间出现在热带东非的海岸，并建立在世界观的基础上，其中包括开放地接触外部物质文化和意识形态。以斯瓦希里人的身份为特征的世界观的实物证据包括采用水稻农业，融入印度洋商业体系，以及皈依伊斯兰教。该项目将考古植物遗骸视为过去生态系统的指标。这项研究将考虑两种类型的植物残留物：(A)用于随着时间的推移重建植物群落物种组成的显微植硅体残留物；(B)可见的木炭残留物，将对其进行分析，以确定在一系列考古背景下发现的特定植物物种的文化用途和偏好。了解斯瓦希里语对热带海岸线环境变化的影响，将使东非加入到新兴的沿海资源管理讨论中。这项研究将提供对穆斯林社会与其占据的生态系统之间关系的洞察。该项目将有助于解释当代生态条件，并创造机会模拟整个区域当前和未来社会活动的影响。因此，这项研究有可能为整个东非沿海地区未来的环境立法任务提供信息。斯瓦希里考古学在很大程度上忽视了环境考古学在重建该地区过去生活方式方面的潜力。当唤起环境条件时，以前的研究人员将斯瓦希里语置于当代条件下，或引用历史文献。通过承认人类行为影响环境条件，这项研究有可能将斯瓦希里人的行为置于他们所经历的生态环境中，并追踪这些决定随着时间的推移对植物群落的影响。为了实现这一结果，该项目结合了家庭考古学和环境考古学的理论。为了实现这项研究的目标，必须建立一个代表斯瓦希里海岸可获得的显微植硅体和木炭标本的比较收藏。这项研究计划必须进行的时间和财政投资，将通过开发一个在线数据库来回报，该数据库将以在植硅体和木炭木纹中识别的独特形状的数字照片、描述和名称为特色。非洲学者和其他对该地区感兴趣的人将受益于该数据库，因为该收藏品减少了在整个东非热带地区研究考古植物遗骸所需的启动成本和时间投资。

Under the supervision of Dr. Adria LaViolette, Jack Stoetzel will conduct an archaeological investigation to reconstruct the relationship between Swahili people and coastal ecosystems between A.D. 600 and 1600. Swahili identity emerged along the coast of tropical East Africa during the first- millennium A.D. and is predicated on a cosmopolitan worldview that includes an openness to engage with external material cultures and ideologies. Physical evidence of the cosmopolitan worldview characteristic of Swahili identity includes the adoption of rice agriculture, integration into the Indian Ocean commercial system, and conversion to Islam. This project treats archaeological plant remains as indicators of past ecological ecosystems. Two types of plant residues will be considered in this research: (a) microscopic phytolith remains which are to be used to reconstruct species composition of botanical communities through time; and (b) visible charcoal remains which will be analyzed to identify cultural use and preference of particular plant species recovered in a range of archaeological contexts.Understanding of Swahili influence on environmental change along tropical coastlines that will result from this project will insert East Africa into the burgeoning discussion of coastal resource management. The research will provide insight into the relationship between a Muslim society and the ecosystems it occupied. The project will help explain contemporary ecological conditions and create the opportunity to model effects of current and future social activity throughout the region. This research therefore has the potential to inform future environmental legislation mandates throughout coastal East Africa.Swahili archaeology has largely overlooked the potential that environmental archaeology can have in reconstructing past lifestyles across the region. When evoking environmental conditions, previous researchers situate Swahili within contemporary conditions or quote historic documents. By acknowledging that human actions influence environmental conditions, this research has the potential to situate Swahili actions within ecological contexts they experienced as well as track the effects such decisions had on plant communities through time. In order to achieve this result, the project combines theories from both household archaeology and environmental archaeology. In order to achieve the goals of this research, a comparative collection must be created that represents microscopic phytolith and charcoal specimen available across the Swahili coast. The time and financial investment which this research program must undertake to create a comparative collection will be rewarded by the development of an online database that will feature digital photographs, descriptions, and names of unique shapes identified in both phytoliths and charcoal wood- grain. African scholars and those otherwise interested in the area will benefit from the database because the collection reduces start- up costs and time investment necessary to research archaeological plant remains throughout tropical East Africa.