Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Food as a Defining Cultural Factor

博士论文改进补助金：食物作为决定性文化因素

• 批准号: 1836554
• 负责人: Katherine Emery
• 金额: $ 3.02万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1836554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Food

Scientists are curious about what ancient people ate and drank. Archaeologists at the University of Florida are investigating the foods and beverages consumed by the ancient Maya, by analyzing organic chemical residues and starch grains in pottery vessels and on stone grinding tools. These analyses are innovative in that they help identify ancient Maya "recipes" rather than single ingredients. They provide insights into the individual's choices of ingredients and methods of combining, processing, and serving foods and drinks, using different tools and vessels. This study is focused on periods of cultural transition, to better understand the relationship between people and food during times of social and environmental change. Differences in Maya recipes through time, across space, and among community members enable understanding of the relationships among people, their foods, and their environmental and social circumstances. The role of food in culture is vital to understanding expressions of personal identity and responses to changing social and environmental circumstances. Thus, this study is relevant to understanding of human cultures in all places and at all times, including today. This study incorporates several methodological advancements by: 1) conducting residue analysis on museum-curated and recently recovered archaeological artifacts to assess preservation and recovery techniques, 2) adding new chemical and micro-botanical signatures to the array of expected ancient Maya ingredients, and 3) using methods to elucidate food combinations and processing steps rather than just ingredients. These approaches are influencing many scientific disciplines, and fostering collaboration among archaeologists, geochemists, and analytical chemists. This research has an important educational component, because multiple graduate students are learning how to collect, extract and prepare organic chemical residues and starch grains from archaeological contexts for analysis. This study will use recovered food residues to identify combinations of ingredients found on food-related artifacts from several pre-contact Maya sites in Belize and Guatemala. The focus is on times of Maya cultural transition, both early (300 BC-250 AD) and late (800-1100 AD), and on places in different ecological zones (coastal, inland, and riverine). Techniques used include liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and starch grain analysis by microscopy. This is the first research project in the Maya region to identify the chaine operatoire (operational sequence) of Maya "recipes" using residue analysis and to explore correlations between food ingredients and food-related artifacts and activities at different stages of food production and consumption. Residues will be correlated to style and inferred function of the artifacts (determined by analysts working on multiple archaeological projects), and the context in which they were found (site location, age, function, and social status), to provide insights into the relations among foods, food-related tools and vessels, and the people who used them.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

科学家们对古代人吃什么喝什么很好奇。佛罗里达大学的考古学家正在调查古玛雅人消费的食物和饮料，方法是分析陶器和石磨具上的有机化学残留物和淀粉颗粒。这些分析是创新的，因为它们有助于识别古玛雅“食谱”，而不是单一的成分。他们提供了洞察个人的成分和组合，加工和服务的食品和饮料的方法的选择，使用不同的工具和容器。这项研究的重点是文化转型时期，以更好地了解社会和环境变化时期人与食物之间的关系。玛雅食谱在时间、空间和社区成员之间的差异使人们能够理解人与人之间的关系，他们的食物，以及他们的环境和社会环境。食物在文化中的作用对于理解个人身份的表达以及对不断变化的社会和环境状况的反应至关重要。因此，这项研究与理解包括今天在内的所有地方和所有时间的人类文化有关。这项研究纳入了几项方法上的进步：1）对博物馆收藏和最近回收的考古文物进行残留物分析，以评估保存和回收技术，2）在预期的古玛雅成分中添加新的化学和微植物特征，以及3）使用方法来阐明食物组合和加工步骤，而不仅仅是成分。这些方法正在影响许多科学学科，并促进考古学家，地球化学家和分析化学家之间的合作。这项研究具有重要的教育意义，因为多名研究生正在学习如何从考古背景中收集、提取和制备有机化学残留物和淀粉颗粒，以供分析。 这项研究将使用回收的食物残留物，以确定在伯利兹和危地马拉的几个接触前玛雅遗址中发现的与食物有关的文物成分的组合。重点是玛雅文化过渡时期，早期（公元前300年至公元250年）和晚期（公元800年至公元1100年），以及不同生态区（沿海，内陆和河流）的地方。所使用的技术包括液相色谱-质谱法、气相色谱-质谱法和通过显微镜进行的淀粉粒分析。这是玛雅地区的第一个研究项目，利用残留物分析确定玛雅“食谱”的操作顺序，并探索食物成分与食物相关文物和食物生产和消费不同阶段活动之间的相互关系。残留物将与文物的风格和推断功能相关（由从事多个考古项目的分析师确定），以及它们被发现的背景（地点位置、年龄、功能和社会地位），以深入了解食物、与食物有关的工具和容器之间的关系，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Using Actor-Network Theory to Characterize the Production of Ancient Maya Caching Events at Cerro Maya (Cerros, Belize)

使用参与者网络理论描述 Cerro Maya（伯利兹塞罗斯）古代玛雅缓存事件的产生

• DOI: 10.1007/s10816-020-09485-4
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Vadala, Jeffrey;Duffy, Lisa
• 通讯作者: Duffy, Lisa