Doctoral Dissertation Research Award: The Development of Mobile Pastoralism

博士论文研究奖：流动牧业发展

• 批准号: 1930288
• 负责人: Robert Drennan
• 金额: $ 2.06万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 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: 2019-07-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1930288&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Award; Development

Researchers have long sought to understand the emergence and development of the distinctive pastoral ways of life characteristic of central Eurasia. Many inhabitants of this enormous territory have been sustained for thousands of years by herding sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. The animal herds must be moved continually to fresh pastures in a pattern that often precludes the establishment of permanent residences. The relationship of such subsistence systems to sedentary agriculture or to highly mobile foraging for wild resources is poorly understood. The possibility that specialized herding may have developed directly from mobile foraging rather than as an adaptation complementary to sedentary farming is especially interesting and little investigated. Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Drennan and Dr. Loukas Barton, Jennifer Farquhar will investigate the role of hunter-gatherers in the development of mobile pastoralism in the desert-steppe region of Mongolia. The study focuses on patterns of mobility across the entire economic and social transition from small-scale egalitarian societies some 7000 years ago to the more complex larger-scale sociopolitical integration of the Bronze Age some 2500 years ago. Mobility is critical to both foraging and herding modes of production. Its study provides not only important insight into how settlement strategies changed with the addition of domestic animals, but also puts in context other aspects of social life including patterns of social interaction, hierarchy, and differential access to material wealth, prestige, production, and ritual. Models from evolutionary ecology will be used in the effort to understand better how hunters and, later on, herders distributed themselves within habitats, identifying changes in how, when, and why people moved. The evaluation of these models will contribute to our understanding of the nature of human decision making as well as of the mechanisms of behavioral change. Application of these models over the past two decades has led to advances in understanding a range of phenomena including the origins of agriculture and the emergence of institutional inequality.Ms. Farquhar will carry out systematic regional-scale survey in the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve in southeastern Mongolia to identify locations where the ephemeral remains of highly mobile hunters and herders can be found, and to collect samples of these materials for study. The research is a central part of Ms. Farquhar's doctoral training and will provide field training and experience for both U.S. and Mongolian students. Cooperation among US and Mongolian team members in field work, laboratory analysis, and interpretation will encourage the exchange of people, ideas, and information in order to promote outcomes that reflect the goals and values of all participants. A collaborative approach to public outreach to local herding communities and the large urban center of Ulaanbaatar will contribute to the goals of Ikh Nart Nature Reserve and the national government to promote environmental management and resource conservation, topics of particular concern in light of recent declines in both natural and cultural resources in the face of unprecedented extraction.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.

长期以来，研究人员一直试图了解欧亚大陆中部独特的田园生活方式的出现和发展。这片广袤土地上的许多居民数千年来一直靠放牧绵羊、山羊、牛和马为生。畜群必须不断迁移到新鲜的牧场，这种迁移方式往往妨碍了永久性的定居。这种生存系统与定居农业或高度移动的觅食野生资源的关系知之甚少。专业化放牧可能是直接从移动的觅食发展而来，而不是作为对定居农业的一种补充的适应，这一可能性特别令人感兴趣，但很少有人对此进行研究。在Robert Drennan博士和Loukas巴顿博士的指导下，Jennifer Farquhar将调查狩猎采集者在蒙古荒漠草原地区移动的畜牧业发展中的作用。这项研究的重点是从大约7000年前的小规模平等主义社会到大约2500年前的青铜时代更复杂的大规模社会政治一体化的整个经济和社会转型中的流动模式。流动性对觅食和放牧两种生产方式都至关重要。它的研究不仅提供了重要的洞察力如何解决策略的变化与家畜的增加，但也把背景下的社会生活的其他方面，包括社会互动的模式，等级制度，和不同的获得物质财富，声望，生产，和仪式。来自进化生态学的模型将用于更好地理解猎人和后来的牧民如何在栖息地内分布，确定人们如何，何时以及为什么移动的变化。对这些模型的评价将有助于我们理解人类决策的本质以及行为变化的机制。在过去二十年里，这些模型的应用促进了对一系列现象的理解，包括农业的起源和制度不平等的出现。法夸尔女士将在蒙古东南部的伊克纳特自然保护区进行系统的区域规模调查，以确定高度移动的猎人和牧民的短暂遗骸的位置，并收集这些材料的样本进行研究。这项研究是Farquhar博士培训的核心部分，将为美国和蒙古学生提供实地培训和经验。美国和蒙古团队成员在实地工作、实验室分析和口译方面的合作将鼓励人员、思想和信息的交流，以促进反映所有参与者目标和价值观的成果。对当地牧民社区和乌兰巴托大城市中心的公共宣传采取协作办法，将有助于实现Ikh Nart自然保护区和国家政府促进环境管理和资源保护的目标，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是一个重要的奖项。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，