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。斯瓦希里人的身份认同沿着热带东非海岸出现在公元第一个千年期间，并以一种世界主义的世界观为基础，包括与外部物质文化和意识形态接触的开放性。斯瓦希里人的世界观特征的物理证据包括采用水稻农业，融入印度洋商业体系，并皈依伊斯兰教。该项目将考古植物遗骸视为过去生态系统的指标。本研究将考虑两种类型的植物残体：（1）显微植硅体残体，用于重建植物群落的物种组成;和（B）可见的木炭遗骸将被分析，以确定文化用途和在一系列考古背景下恢复的特定植物物种的偏好。了解斯瓦希里语对沿着热带海岸线环境变化的影响，这一项目的成果将使东非加入正在兴起的沿海资源管理讨论。这项研究将深入了解穆斯林社会与其所占据的生态系统之间的关系。 该项目将有助于解释当代的生态条件，并创造机会模拟整个地区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整个地区过去生活方式方面的潜力。当唤起环境条件时，以前的研究人员在当代条件下引用斯瓦希里语或引用历史文献。通过承认人类行为影响环境条件，这项研究有可能在斯瓦希里人经历的生态环境中，以及跟踪这些决定对植物群落的影响。为了实现这一目标，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，必须建立一个比较收集，代表整个斯瓦希里海岸可用的显微植硅石和木炭标本。本研究计划必须承担的时间和财政投资，以创建一个比较收集将得到回报的在线数据库，将功能的数码照片，描述和名称的独特形状，在植物岩和木炭木纹确定的发展。非洲学者和那些对该地区感兴趣的人将从该数据库中受益，因为该数据库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.