Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Tropical Forest Mobility and Subsistence

博士论文改进奖：热带森林流动性和生存

• 批准号: 1838569
• 负责人: Michael Smith
• 金额: $ 1.3万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 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: 2018-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1838569&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Tropical

Under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith of Arizona State University, Mr. Timothy Dennehy, will conduct research to address a central anthropological question: how do human societies change as they transition from foraging to agriculture? The origin of agriculture is one of the most heavily researched topics in the study of human prehistory, and much is known about the first people to independently adopt farming in each area of the world. Yet comparatively little is known about the pre-agricultural groups that occupied these same landscapes before farming arose. This hampers understanding of both domestication processes as well as the changes to human society that accompanied them. By analyzing multiple lines of evidence derived from the stone artifacts (lithics) from three sites in the Lowland Maya region of Mesoamerica, this project will contribute greatly to understanding of how human groups transition from a mobile hunting and gathering lifestyle to a more sedentary one focused on food production. This project also works cooperatively with descendant Maya communities in Belize, thus contributing to the training and education of an ethnic group underrepresented in the STEM fields.Mr. Dennehy will examine how tropical forest foragers changed their mobility strategies over time in response to an environment that they themselves were altering through their manipulation of forest resources. The term "mobility strategy" here refers to the number of moves made by a group in a given year. On one end of the spectrum, a Residential Mobility Strategy entails many small moves in which the entire group sets up a new camp every few days. On the other end, a Logistical Mobility Strategy entails fewer residential moves but a greater number of small task-oriented (i.e. logistical) moves, wherein specialized groups of foragers undertake long-range trips to bring vital resources back to a central camp. Modern-day tropical forest groups that rely solely on wild resources tend to practice the former strategy; other modern-day groups who more extensively manipulate their environments and cultivate resources tend practice the latter. These two mobility strategies affect the amount of raw material available for stone tool production; in turn, raw material availability impacts several lithic traits, making this project's lithic analysis one of the only ways to indirectly assess mobility strategies. The rockshelters that are the focus of this study contain deposits that date from 8000-900 B.C., and cover the late Paleoindian/Early Archaic transition through the Late Archaic/Middle Preclassic transition, a record whose time-depth and completeness is unparalleled in the Maya world. This record is anchored at one end by the early hunter-gatherer societies who preceded domestication, and on the other by fully agricultural Maya groups; thus, it will provide evidence of the full spectrum of subsistence strategies utilized during the transition from foraging to agriculture. By examining mobility and subsistence throughout this long time period and at three different locations, this study offers a unique spatio-temporal perspective on changing Mesoamerican foraging societies.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.

在Michael E博士的指导下，亚利桑那州立大学的史密斯先生，蒂莫西·丹尼希先生，将进行研究，以解决一个中心的人类学问题：人类社会如何改变，因为他们从觅食过渡到农业？农业的起源是人类史前史研究中研究最多的主题之一，关于世界上每个地区第一批独立采用农业的人，我们知道得很多。然而，对于在农业出现之前居住在这些土地上的前农业群体，我们所知相对较少。这阻碍了对驯化过程以及伴随而来的人类社会变化的理解。通过分析来自中美洲低地玛雅地区三个遗址的石器（石器）的多条证据，该项目将极大地有助于了解人类群体如何从移动的狩猎和采集生活方式过渡到专注于食物生产的久坐不动的生活方式。该项目还与伯利兹的玛雅后裔社区合作，从而为在STEM领域代表性不足的族裔群体的培训和教育做出贡献。Dennehy先生将研究热带森林觅食者如何随着时间的推移改变他们的流动策略，以应对他们自己通过操纵森林资源而改变的环境。“流动战略”一词在这里是指一个群体在某一年中的流动次数。一方面，住宅移动战略需要许多小的移动，整个团队每隔几天就建立一个新的营地。另一方面，后勤人员流动战略需要较少的居住迁移，但更多的是以任务为导向的小型（即后勤）迁移，其中专门的觅食者群体进行长途旅行，将重要资源带回中央营地。现代的热带森林群体只依靠野生资源，倾向于采取前一种策略;其他现代群体更广泛地利用环境和培育资源，倾向于采取后一种策略。这两种流动性策略影响了可用于石器生产的原材料的数量;反过来，原材料的可用性影响了几个石器特征，使该项目的石器分析成为间接评估流动性策略的唯一方法之一。作为本研究重点的岩石掩蔽层含有公元前8000-900年的沉积物，并涵盖了晚古印度/早古印度过渡到晚古印度/中前古典过渡，其时间深度和完整性的记录是无与伦比的玛雅世界。这一记录的一端是在驯化之前的早期狩猎采集社会，另一端是完全农业化的玛雅群体;因此，它将提供从觅食到农业过渡期间所使用的全方位生存策略的证据。通过研究流动性和生存在这段漫长的时间内，在三个不同的位置，这项研究提供了一个独特的时空视角不断变化的中美洲觅食society.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。