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Emily Lena Jones博士的指导下，研究泰国狩猎采集者如何应对过去12000年来的环境变化和驯化动植物的引入。以前的考古研究表明，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，以包括以前被忽视的动物资源。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开发。鉴于人类社会在驯化之后发生了有据可查的变化，对生活在向农业过渡的狩猎采集者的考古记录的研究提供了一种手段，可以研究这些变化是如何以及为什么发生的，并提供信息，说明狩猎采集者人口如何影响到今天仍与农学家一起觅食的地区对驯养动植物的采用。在土著权利问题复杂、传统知识和生存习俗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-采集生活方式和野生动物保护问题相联系。在这个项目中，康拉德将在泰国北部的一系列地点测试“广谱革命”假说，在该地区，这一假说从未得到正式测试。泰国北部是泰国第一个引入这些家养动物的地区，以及2)这些驯养动物现存的野生祖先最初生活在那里，并被狩猎-采集者开发(并继续被开发)。康拉德将利用对这些地点的动物骨骼的分析以及对动物牙齿和软体动物壳的生化测试，探索狩猎-采集者如何改变(或不改变)他们对野生动物的开发，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关于在首次引入家养植物和动物之前、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是了解东南亚热带未来环境变化可能如何影响传统生存战略和驯养畜牧业的重要指标。此外，该项目将支持美国和泰国学者之间的专业合作，并将创建一个双语博物馆展览，在泰国国家科学博物馆的自然历史博物馆展示项目成果。

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.