Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mainland Southeast Asia in the Longue Duree: a test of the "Broad Spectrum Revolution" in Northern Thailand

新墨西哥大学的博士生Cyler Conrad将在Dr. Emily Lena Jones的指导下，调查泰国狩猎采集者在过去12000年里是如何应对环境变化和驯化动植物的引入的。先前的考古研究表明，由于环境条件的变化、人口密度的增加或两者兼而有之，狩猎采集者经常扩大他们的饮食范围，包括以前被忽视的动物资源。在某些情况下，这些活动增加了人类与动物的互动并最终驯化，而在另一些情况下，它们促进了狩猎采集者群体对野生动物的持续长期利用。考虑到人类社会在驯化之后发生的变化，对经历了向农业过渡的狩猎采集者的考古记录的研究，为研究这些转变是如何以及为什么发生的提供了一种手段，并提供了关于狩猎采集者群体如何影响驯化动植物的信息，在一个地区，他们今天继续与农业工作者一起觅食。在一个具有复杂的土著权利问题以及传统知识和生存方式丧失的全球化世界中，该项目将研究狩猎和动物剥削的长期考古记录如何与现代狩猎采集者的生活方式和野生动物保护问题联系起来。在这个项目中，Conrad将在泰国北部的一系列地点测试“广谱革命”假设，该假设从未在该地区得到正式测试。泰国北部是1)泰国第一个引进这些驯养动物的地区，2)这些驯养动物现存的野生祖先最初生活的地区，并被（并将继续）被狩猎采集者利用。通过对这些地点的动物骨骼进行分析，以及对动物牙齿和软体动物外壳进行生化测试，康拉德将探索狩猎采集者如何改变（或不改变）他们对野生动物的利用，以应对环境条件的变化和驯化植物和动物的引入。这种多方面的方法将提供在家养动植物首次引入之前、期间和之后的野生动物狩猎的细粒度数据。该项目产生的数据将成为了解东南亚热带地区未来环境变化如何影响传统生存策略和驯养畜牧业的重要代理。此外，该项目将支持美国和泰国学者之间的专业合作，并将在泰国国家科学博物馆的自然历史博物馆举办双语博物馆展览，展示项目成果。

University of New Mexico Ph.D. student Cyler Conrad, under the supervision of Dr. Emily Lena Jones, will investigate how Thai hunter-gatherers responded to environmental shifts and the introduction of domesticated plants and animals over the past 12,000 years. Previous archaeological research indicates that hunter-gatherers often broaden their diets to include previously ignored animal resources due to changes in environmental conditions, increases in human population densities or both. In some cases, these activities lead to increased human-animal interaction and eventually domestication, while in others they facilitate the continued long-term exploitation of wild animals by hunter-gatherer groups. Given the documented changes to human societies that follow domestication, research on the archaeological record of hunter-gatherers who lived through the transition to agriculture provides a means to examine how and why these shifts occurred, as well as providing information on how hunter-gatherer populations impacted the adoption of domesticated animals and plants in a region where they continue to forage alongside agriculturalists today. In a globalized world with complex indigenous rights issues as well as a loss of traditional knowledge and subsistence practices, this project will examine how long-term archaeological record of hunting and animal exploitation articulates with modern hunter-gatherer lifeways and wild animal conservation issues. In this project, Conrad will test the "Broad Spectrum Revolution" hypothesis at a suite of sites from northern Thailand, a region in which this hypothesis has never been formally tested. Northern Thailand was 1) the first region in Thailand where these domesticates were introduced and 2) a region where the extant wild progenitors of these domesticated animals originally lived and were (and continue to be) exploited by hunter-gatherers. Using both analysis of animal bone from these sites and biochemical testing of animal teeth and mollusk shell, Conrad will explore how hunter-gatherers altered (or not) their exploitation of wild animals in response to changes in environmental conditions and to the introduction of domesticated plants and animals. This multi-faceted approach will provide fine-grained data on wild animal hunting before, during, and after the period when domestic plants and animals were first introduced. The data produced by this project will be an important proxy for understanding how future environmental changes in the Southeast Asian tropics may impact traditional subsistence strategies and domesticated animal husbandry. In addition, this project will support professional collaborations between American and Thai scholars and will result in the creation of a bilingual museum exhibit presenting project results at the Natural History Museum of the National Science Museum, Thailand.