Long Term Human Impact On A Tropical Environment

Michael Heckenberger博士(佛罗里达大学)和巴西同事将进行研究，研究亚马逊南部上兴古地区末梢前哥伦布时期复杂社会的规模和组织。这项研究建立在先前NSF支持的考古基础上，考古提供了明确的证据，表明在1,200平方公里的研究区域内，有围墙的城镇和无围墙的村庄组成的两个综合集群中，有大量密集居住的前哥伦布人口和区域组织。该项目将提供有关技术经济系统和生产系统资源基础的重要新数据，这些系统包括森林和湿地管理系统在内的大量哥伦布前定居人口。这些系统不仅改变了森林状况，还可能帮助维持甚至扩大了这片过渡热带森林镶嵌区域的森林。有人建议，与初级粮食和经济作物相关的生产景观中的半集约土地利用做法集中在集群核心区和以外围地区为主的高位工作林。有人建议，该区域的前哥伦布地区的群体实行混合系统，将整个区域的森林转化为森林，这有助于维持和扩大整个区域的森林物种，即使在大约公元1250-1650年期间，当定居点达到其最大规模和聚落集群时，也不是主要地砍伐和焚烧农业做法或露天耕作以剥离森林。这项研究为关于前哥伦布时代亚马逊人口水平和人类影响的辩论提供了信息，特别是对亚马逊南部过渡森林中工业化前亚马逊森林生态系统的最大程度的人为影响，以及与气候变化、可持续性和文化遗产有关的人-环境耦合系统的动态。它阐述了可持续发展方面的科学和公众利益，包括在巴西和美国通过参与、伙伴关系和教育发展的大型项目和公共人类学中的多尺度和多文化合作。Heckenberger和他的团队将检查位于主要终端前哥伦布城镇和村庄之间的假定的场外生产区，并将这些环境与定居区和非生产型林区的假定区域在土壤和森林覆盖率方面进行比较。该团队包括考古学、古生态学和民族生态学家，并继续开展一项成功的参与式研究项目，该项目涉及与当地土著社区的国际合作和参与。为期四个月的实地工作，包括培训和协作讲习班，将侧重于45个离散地区的非现场土壤采样，以及每个地区森林植被的一般民族生态特征。此外，建议进行湿地测试，以收集受控良好的花粉、微木炭和其他遗骸样本，以提供大型住区和更广泛区域格局地区的当地植被图景。

Dr. Michael Heckenberger (University of Florida) and Brazilian colleagues will conduct research to study the scale and organization of terminal pre-Columbian complex societies in the Upper Xingu region of the southern Amazon. The research builds on prior NSF-supported archaeology, which provided clear evidence of large, densely settled pre-Columbian populations and regional organization in two integrated clusters of walled towns and non-walled villages, ca. 1250-1650 CE, within a 1,200 km² study area. This project will provide important new data on the techno-economic systems and the resource base of production systems associated with the large, sedentary pre-Columbian populations, including forest and wetland management systems. These systems not only altered forest conditions but may have helped maintain or even expand forest in this mosaic area of transitional tropical forest. It is suggested that semi-intensive land use practices in production landscapes associated with primary food and industrial crops were concentrated in cluster core areas and high working forests dominated in peripheral areas. Rather than predominantly slash and burn agricultural practices or open field farming that denude forest, it is suggested that pre-Columbian groups of the region practiced hybrid systems that involved forest to forest conversion across the region, which helped maintain and expand forest species across the region, even during the period ca. 1250-1650 CE when settlements reached their maximum size and integration in clusters. The research informs debates on pre-Columbian population levels and human impacts in the Amazon, notably the maximal degree of anthropogenic influence on pre-industrial Amazonian forest ecosystems in the southern Amazon transitional forests and dynamics of coupled human-environmental systems in relation to climate change, sustainability and cultural heritage. It articulates with scientific and public interests in sustainability, including multi-scalar and multi-cultural collaborations in large projects and public anthropology developed through participation, partnership and education in Brazil and the USA.Dr. Heckenberger and his team will examine putative off-site production areas situated between major terminal pre-Columbian towns and villages and compare these settings to settlement areas and putative areas of non-production standing forest areas, in terms of soils and forest cover. The team includes archaeology, paleoecology and ethno-ecologists and continues a successful participatory research program that involves international collaboration and engagement with local indigenous communities. Four months of fieldwork, including training and collaboration workshops, will focus on off-site soil sampling in 45 discrete areas, as well as general ethnoecological characterization of forest vegetation in each area. Additionally, wetland testing is proposed to collect well controlled samples of pollen, micro-charcoal, and other remains, to provide a picture of local vegetation in areas of large settlements and broader regional patterns.