Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Reconstruction of Social Organization Through Analysis of Material Remains

博士论文改进奖：通过物质遗存分析重建社会组织

• 批准号: 1637012
• 负责人: Daniel Adler
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-01 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1637012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Reconstruction

Under the supervision of Dr. Sally McBrearty at the University of Connecticut, Alison Mant-Melville will study variability in Middle Stone Age (MSA, 300-40 ka) stone tool technology to test for underlying behavioural patterning and the factors influencing technological trends. The MSA spans the emergence of behavioral complexity, the evolution of Homo sapiens, modern human replacement of contemporary hominin species, and dispersals within and out of Africa. Previous research shows the pattern and pace of MSA behavioural change to vary within and between regions. In East Africa, technological patterning is ambiguous and novel behaviors are temporally and spatially patchy. It is unclear to what extent stone tool behaviors represent changing social networks between groups or responses to fluctuating climate conditions, raw material and reduction differences, chance, or some interaction among these factors. The researchers will apply a novel and quantitative approach to studying the degree of shared material culture among East African MSA assemblages and to provide new insight into the patterns and processes shaping technological variability in space and time. Unravelling these issues is fundamental to answering questions of why, when, and where the modern human species began to display the complex and diverse behaviors that constitutes "humanity." As numerous, widespread, and enduring artefacts, stone tool assemblages are well placed to investigate these behavioral changes as they represent repeated, cumulative, and time-averaged technological behaviors that transcend generations. This project will support the doctoral training of the Co-PI (Alison Mant-Melville) and museum training for East African students. The methodology emphasizes comparability and reproducibility, which will facilitate the integration of the open-access data with studies in other time periods and regions. Given the public interest in modern human origins, the results will also be shared widely through conference presentations, journal articles, and public lectures.The project draws from robust middle-range theory and insights from knapping experiments to connect knapping behaviors with the social transmission of technical knowledge. Multivariate statistical methods on cores, flakes, and tools from 15 open-air assemblages in a range landscape contexts and from four sub-regions of Ethiopia and Kenya will identify "clusters" of similar technological decisions at different stages of the knapping sequence. The results will be assessed against model expectations for the effects of different sources of variability. Paleoenvironmental and climatic data for the models will be sourced from published lake cores and site sedimentary contexts. Modelling cultural transmission of technological behaviors between assemblages can serve as a generalized proxy for the degree of social interaction between groups. Systematically demonstrating such relationships is an essential component in any holistic analyses of behavioral change and for assessing the dispersals, contractions, and evolutionary relationships of MSA populations.

在康涅狄格大学Sally McBrearty博士的监督下，Alison Mant-Melville将研究中石器时代（MSA，300-40 ka）石器技术的变化，以测试潜在的行为模式和影响技术趋势的因素。MSA涵盖了行为复杂性的出现，智人的进化，现代人类对当代人类物种的替代，以及非洲内外的扩散。以前的研究表明，MSA行为变化的模式和速度在地区内和地区之间各不相同。在东非，技术模式是模糊不清的，新的行为在时间和空间上是不完整的。目前还不清楚石器工具的行为在多大程度上代表了群体之间不断变化的社交网络，或对波动的气候条件、原材料和还原差异、机会或这些因素之间的某种相互作用的反应。研究人员将采用一种新颖的定量方法来研究东非MSA集合体之间共享物质文化的程度，并为塑造空间和时间技术变异性的模式和过程提供新的见解。解开这些问题是回答现代人类为什么、何时、何地开始表现出构成“人性”的复杂多样的行为的基础。“作为数量众多、分布广泛且持久的人工制品，石器组合非常适合研究这些行为变化，因为它们代表了超越世代的重复、累积和时间平均的技术行为。该项目将支持共同PI（Alison Mant-Melville）的博士培训和东非学生的博物馆培训。该方法强调可比性和再现性，这将有助于将开放获取的数据与其他时间段和地区的研究相结合。鉴于公众对现代人类起源的兴趣，研究结果也将通过会议演讲、期刊文章和公开讲座广泛分享。该项目借鉴了稳健的中程理论和knapping实验的见解，将knapping行为与技术知识的社会传播联系起来。多元统计方法的核心，薄片，和工具，从15个露天组合在一个范围内的景观背景下，从埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚的四个分区域将确定“集群”的类似的技术决策在不同阶段的knapping序列。将根据模型对不同变异性来源影响的预期评估结果。模型的古环境和气候数据将来自已发表的湖芯和现场沉积环境。对集合体之间技术行为的文化传播进行建模可以作为群体之间社会互动程度的广义代理。系统地证明这种关系是一个重要组成部分，在任何整体分析的行为变化和评估的扩散，收缩，和进化关系的MSA人口。