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.

在亚利桑那州立大学迈克尔·E·史密斯博士的指导下，蒂莫西·丹内利先生将开展研究来解决人类学的一个核心问题：人类社会从觅食向农业过渡时会发生怎样的变化？农业的起源是人类史前研究中研究最深入的课题之一，人们对世界各地第一个独立从事农业的人们了解很多。然而，人们对在农业出现之前占据这些相同土地的前农业群体知之甚少。这阻碍了对驯化过程以及随之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地点的石器（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流动的狩猎和采集生活方式转变为专注于粮食生产的久坐生活方式。该项目还与伯利兹的玛雅后裔社区合作，从而为 STEM 领域代表性不足的少数民族群体的培训和教育做出贡献。丹尼希将研究热带森林采集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。这里的“流动策略”一词是指一个群体在特定年份内进行的流动次数。另一方面，住宅流动战略需要许多小动作，整个团队每隔几天就建立一个新营地。另一方面，后勤流动战略需要更少的住宅搬迁，但需要更多的小型任务导向（即后勤）搬迁，其中专门的采集者小组进行长途旅行，将重要资源带回中心营地。完全依赖野生资源的现代热带森林群体往往采用前一种策略；其他更广泛地操纵环境和开发资源的现代群体往往倾向于后者。这两种流动策略影响可用于石器生产的原材料数量；反过来，原材料的可用性会影响一些石器特征，使该项目的石器分析成为间接评估流动策略的唯一方法之一。作为本次研究重点的岩石庇护所包含的沉积物可以追溯到公元前 8000-900 年，涵盖古印度晚期/古风早期过渡到古风晚期/前古典时期中期过渡，这一记录的时间深度和完整性在玛雅世界中是无与伦比的。这一记录一方面以驯化之前的早期狩猎采集社会为基础，另一方面以完全农业化的玛雅群体为基础。因此，它将提供从觅食向农业过渡期间所采用的全方位生存战略的证据。通过考察这段漫长时期内三个不同地点的流动性和生存情况，这项研究为中美洲觅食社会的变化提供了独特的时空视角。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。