Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Production of Agriculturally Valuable Soils

博士论文改进奖：具有农业价值的土壤的生产

• 批准号: 1904291
• 负责人: Tom Dillehay
• 金额: $ 2.3万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-15 至 2021-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1904291&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Production

Throughout the lower Amazon basin of Brazil, the study of enhanced, human-modified soils, or Amazonian Dark Earth soils (ADE), has shed light on the complex ways in which Native Amazonians interacted with diverse environments. While the study of ADE has demonstrated its importance in the development of complex societies before the arrival of Europeans, there have yet to be any significant studies concerning the transformations of ADE during European colonization of the Amazon. Researchers will collect and analyze samples of ADE soils at the Carrazedo site, located at the confluence of the Xingu and Amazon Rivers, to examine the processes and causes behind transformations of ADE between precolonial, colonial, and modern occupations of the site. This study will provide ecological and anthropological knowledge concerning both the transformations of ADE soils and the political economies associated with their production. The rupture caused by colonialism in this region presents an ideal opportunity to identify the ways in which ADE production, which was originally geared towards subsistence agriculture, transformed to meet the needs of emerging capitalism. Within the Carrazedo community, this project will help to foster greater appreciation of the community's archaeological past, will provide incentive to protect the archaeological site from future development, will contribute to the development of a community-based tourism project at the site, and will provide archaeological training to both community members and undergraduate students. The project also holds great potential towards the ongoing development of productive, yet sustainable strategies for rural agriculture in the Amazon. As the project fine tunes the analyses of the complexities of ADE variability, farming communities may harness this knowledge and benefit from the greater production that high fertility levels of ADE have to offer. Opportunities for less deforestation and greater carbon sequestration also make the study of ADE an important avenue for greater sustainability in the Amazon. Researchers of this project will address questions concerning the chemical, physical, and cultural variability of ADE between precolonial, colonial and modern occupations of the site. Specifically, this study will seek to understand both the intentionality behind ADE production, and the transformation of this traditional ecological knowledge over time. Were these soils being reproduced after the arrival of Europeans? Or were the techniques and knowledge of ADE production lost as a result of colonialism? This study will answer these questions by conducting excavations and collecting soil samples within various activity areas that cover a broad spatial and temporal scope of the site with the intention of understanding the incremental and systematic changes to ADE. Once collected, these samples will be analyzed in order to understand their chemical, physical, and cultural components. These results will then be integrated with findings from archival research in order to gain insight to the nature of historic strategies for agricultural production and community patterning in the greater Xingu-Amazon region.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.

在整个巴西亚马孙盆地下游，对改良土壤或亚马逊暗土土壤（ADE）的研究揭示了亚马逊原住民与不同环境相互作用的复杂方式。虽然对ADE的研究已经证明了它在欧洲人到来之前复杂社会发展中的重要性，但关于欧洲殖民亚马逊期间ADE的转变还没有任何重要的研究。研究人员将在位于新古河和亚马逊河汇合处的Carrazedo遗址收集和分析ADE土壤样本，以研究该遗址在前殖民时期、殖民时期和现代占领时期ADE转变背后的过程和原因。这项研究将提供关于ADE土壤的转变和与其生产相关的政治经济的生态学和人类学知识。殖民主义在该地区造成的破裂提供了一个理想的机会，可以确定ADE生产的方式，该生产最初面向自给农业，转变为满足新兴资本主义的需要。在Carrazedo社区内，该项目将有助于提高对社区考古历史的认识，将激励人们保护考古遗址不受未来开发的影响，将促进该遗址的社区旅游项目的发展，并将为社区成员和本科生提供考古培训。该项目对亚马逊地区农村农业生产性可持续战略的持续发展也具有巨大潜力。随着该项目对ADE变异性复杂性的分析进行微调，农业社区可以利用这些知识，并从ADE的高肥力水平所带来的更高产量中受益。减少森林砍伐和增加碳固存的机会也使ADE研究成为亚马逊地区提高可持续性的重要途径。该项目的研究人员将解决有关前殖民时期、殖民时期和现代占领时期ADE的化学、物理和文化差异的问题。具体而言，本研究将试图了解ADE产生背后的意向性，以及这种传统生态知识随时间的转变。这些土壤是在欧洲人到来后被复制的吗？或者是由于殖民主义，ADE生产的技术和知识丢失了？本研究将通过在覆盖场地广泛时空范围的各种活动区域内进行挖掘和收集土壤样本来回答这些问题，旨在了解ADE的增量和系统变化。一旦收集，这些样品将进行分析，以了解其化学，物理和文化成分。然后，这些结果将与档案研究的结果相结合，以深入了解大新疆-亚马逊地区农业生产和社区模式的历史战略的本质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。