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

新墨西哥州大学博士在艾米丽莉娜琼斯博士的指导下，学生凯勒康拉德将调查泰国狩猎采集者如何应对过去12,000年来的环境变化和驯化植物和动物的引入。以前的考古研究表明，狩猎采集者经常扩大他们的饮食，包括以前被忽视的动物资源，由于环境条件的变化，人口密度的增加或两者兼而有之。在某些情况下，这些活动导致人与动物之间的互动增加，并最终导致驯化，而在另一些情况下，这些活动促进了狩猎采集群体对野生动物的持续长期剥削。鉴于人类社会在驯化之后发生了有据可查的变化，对经历农业过渡的狩猎采集者的考古记录的研究提供了一种方法来研究这些转变是如何以及为什么发生的，并提供了关于狩猎采集者人口如何影响驯化动物和植物的信息，在他们今天继续与农业家一起觅食的地区。在一个存在复杂的土著权利问题以及传统知识和生存实践丧失的全球化世界中，该项目将研究狩猎和动物开发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相结合。 在这个项目中，康拉德将在泰国北方的一组遗址上测试“广谱革命”假设，这一假设从未被正式测试过。泰国北方是1）泰国第一个引入这些驯养动物的地区，2）这些驯养动物的现存野生祖先最初生活的地区，并被（并继续被）狩猎采集者利用。通过对这些遗址中动物骨骼的分析以及动物牙齿和软体动物壳的生化测试，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以及驯化植物和动物的引入。这种多方面的方法将提供关于野生动物狩猎的精细数据，在家养植物和动物首次引入之前，期间和之后。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计战略和驯养畜牧业的重要替代指标。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自然历史博物馆创建一个双语博物馆展览，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.