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

在Adria LaViolette博士的指导下，Jack Stoetzel将进行一项考古调查，以重建公元600年至1600年间斯瓦希里人与沿海生态系统之间的关系。斯瓦希里人的身份在公元一千年期间出现在热带东非沿岸，并建立在一种世界主义世界观的基础上，其中包括与外部物质文化和意识形态接触的开放性。斯瓦希里人认同的世界主义世界观的物证包括采用水稻农业、融入印度洋商业体系和皈依伊斯兰教。本项目将考古植物遗迹作为过去生态系统的指标。本研究将考虑两种类型的植物残体：(a)用于重建植物群落物种组成的微观植物残体；(b)可见的木炭残骸，将被分析，以确定在一系列考古背景下恢复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沿线环境变化的影响，将使东非纳入关于沿海资源管理的迅速讨论。这项研究将有助于深入了解穆斯林社会与其所处生态系统之间的关系。该项目将有助于解释当代生态状况，并为整个地区当前和未来社会活动的影响创造机会。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。在唤起环境条件时，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，并追踪这些决定对植物群落的影响。为了达到这一结果，该项目结合了家庭考古学和环境考古学的理论。为了实现本研究的目标，必须创建一个比较收集，代表微观植物岩和木炭标本在整个斯瓦希里海岸可用。这个研究项目所投入的时间和资金将通过建立一个在线数据库得到回报，该数据库将以植物岩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，因为该收集减少了研究整个热带东非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.