Hunter-Gatherer Social Behavior during the North American Pleistocene

史密森学会的约瑟夫·金格里奇博士将探索美洲狩猎采集人群之间的社会互动。虽然考古学家能够在美国发现可追溯到1.3万多年前的露营地，但我们对居住在北美的第一批人是如何生活的知之甚少。宾夕法尼亚州的肖尼-米尼辛克是北美最古老、保存最完好的考古遗址之一。这个网站允许我们研究早期的美国社会交往和生活方式，这些在其他同龄人的网站上是很少有的。关于该遗址文物的空间分布的数据将被用于开发理论和方法模型，以帮助更好地解释世界各地的其他狩猎采集遗址。从这项工作中获得的信息，将把该遗址置于更广泛的主题背景下，将被用于提名该遗址为国家历史地标。该遗址目前被列入国家历史名胜名录。该项目还注重培养学生，并通过史密森？S实习计划为本科生提供研究经验。这些目标将通过对18,000件地图文物的详细空间分析和改装研究来实现。人种学研究证明了使用空间数据检查狩猎-采集行为和社会互动的效用。这项研究将考察：1)通过人工制品的空间聚集来检验场地结构和组织，2)通过人工制品使用磨损和研究石器工具生产的制造碎片来研究特定工作区的功能，3)通过改装人工制品和减少碎片来连接各个空间单元的场地内社会互动，以及4)基于外来原材料的分布、工作区域之间的联系和空间人工制品集群的场地外社会互动。这项研究意义重大，因为很少有首批美国遗址成为详细的站点内空间研究的焦点。由于民族志学者观察到很少有流动性高的狩猎采集群体使用石器，生活在中纬度人烟稀少的地貌上，该项目提供了一个机会，可以在大空间尺度上考察史前狩猎采集遗址，并测试考古记录和民族考古记录之间的关系。石板改装图案、孤立的工作区和整体空间图案将为人类行为通过被丢弃的文物表现出来的方式提供新的见解。在这方面，这项研究提供了一个有价值的数据集，未来社会组织的比较研究可以用来检验过去的人类行为。在该项目期间汇编和分析的考古空间数据将可通过史密森学会在线获取。

Dr. Joseph Gingerich of the Smithsonian Institution will explore social interaction among hunter-gatherer populations in the Americas. While archaeologists have been able to find campsites that date to more than 13,000 years ago in the United States, we know very little about how the first people who inhabited North America lived. Shawnee-Minisink in Pennsylvania is one the oldest and best preserved archaeological sites in North America. This site allows us to examine early American social interaction and ways of life, which are rarely available at other sites of the same age. Data on the spatial distribution of artifacts from this site will be used to develop theoretical and methodological models to help better interpret other hunter-gatherer sites throughout the world. Information from this work, which places the site into a broader thematic context, will be used to nominate the site as a National Historic Landmark. The site currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The project also has pedagogical focus in training students and providing undergraduates with research experiences through the Smithsonian?s internship program.These goals will be achieved through a detailed spatial analysis and refit study of 18,000 mapped artifacts. Ethnographic research has demonstrated the utility of using spatial data to examine hunter-gatherer behavior and social interactions. This research will examine: 1) site structure and organization through the spatial clustering of artifacts, 2) the function of specific work areas through artifact use-wear and the study of manufacturing debris from stone tool production, 3) intra-site social interaction by linking individual spatial units through the refitting of artifacts and reduction debris, and 4) extra-site social interaction based on the distribution of exotic raw materials, links between work areas, and the spacing artifact clusters. This study is significant because few first American sites have been the focus of a detailed intra-site spatial study. As ethnographers have observed few highly mobile hunter-gatherer groups using stone tools and living on sparsely populated landscapes at middle latitudes, this project provides an opportunity to examine a prehistoric hunter-gatherer site at a large spatial scale and test relationships between the archaeological and ethnoarchaeological records. Lithic refitting patterns, isolated work areas, and overall spatial patterning will provide new insights into the way human behavior manifests itself through discarded artifacts. In this respect, this research provides a valuable dataset from which future comparative studies of social organization can be drawn to examine past human behavior. Archaeological spatial data compiled and analyzed during this project will be accessible online through the Smithsonian Institution.