Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Social Input to Scarce Resource Distribution

德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校(UTSA)的Jason Yaeger博士和Sebastian Salgado-Flores先生将研究社会习俗和仪式行为对后古典玛雅人收获和管理柴火的影响。由于木头是史前中美洲社会烹饪食物的主要燃料，采伐木柴给古代聚居地周围的森林带来了巨大的压力。没有负重动物的存在将收获限制在相对较短的距离，而且首选的薪材树生长缓慢，很可能无法满足不断增长的人口的需要。因此，这项研究对后古典玛雅遗址的木炭进行了研究，以确定他们获得更高质量木柴的机会是否随着时间的推移而减少，或者这些遗址的居民是否能够克服上述挑战并可持续地收获首选木材。这项研究将比较高地位住宅、低地位住宅和公共宴请活动中使用的木柴分类，以了解精英们为提高或保持自己的社会地位而采取的策略是否包括更多地消费更高质量的木质燃料。该项目将涉及与美国和墨西哥几所大学的考古学家、墨西哥自然地区研究委员会以及德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的克莱伯格高级显微镜中心的合作。这项研究还将改进根据木炭碎片估计树木或树枝直径的考古测量学方法，并将有助于对少数族裔博士生进行考古植物学方法和扫描电子显微镜的培训。在过去的几十年里，煤炭学(从考古遗址回收的木炭的研究)与理解人类环境动态以及社会如何成功或未能实现长期资源安全越来越相关。目前，该领域对人类薪材收集的理解是基于一种以“最小努力原则”为指导的模式，该原则期望木材采集者优化每次收获所获得的能量。由于与收获和运输木材的繁重劳动力成本相比，高质量和低质量薪材之间的热量释放差异微乎其微，因此该模型假设古代收割者优先考虑方便，相对不区分他们收获的是什么物种。虽然这一模型似乎充分解释了某些考古案例中木炭组合的物种分布，但它不能完全解释由少数几种木材主导的组合或同一考古地点同时沉积的组合的物种组成的差异。它还假设，在文化管理和消费薪材的方式中，政治和社会组织发挥的作用很小。因此，这项研究将检验最少努力模式的原则，以及基于政治生态学和后古典玛雅社区的社会动态的另一种柴火采购模式。后一种模型假设，这些社区的社会精英找到了方法来保护他们获得首选木材类型的机会。该模型预测，精英活动产生的木炭组合(特别是那些由宴会等公共活动产生的木炭组合)将比非精英家庭产生的组合更有可能包含优先物种。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Dr. Jason Yaeger and Mr. Sebastian Salgado-Flores, of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), will examine the impact of social practices and ritual behavior on Postclassic Maya harvesting and management of firewood. Because wood was the primary fuel for cooking food in pre-historic Mesoamerican societies, firewood harvesting put significant strain on the forests around ancient settlements. The absence of beasts of burden limited harvesting to relatively short distances, and the preferred fuelwood trees grow slowly and were likely unable to meet the needs of a growing population. Thus, this research studies the wood charcoal from Postclassic Maya sites to determine whether their access to higher quality firewood declined over time, or whether the sites' inhabitants were able to overcome the challenges mentioned above and sustainably harvest preferred woods. The research will compare the taxa of firewood used in high-status residences, low-status residences, and public feasting events, in order to understand whether the strategies employed by elites to improve or maintain their social position included greater consumption of higher-quality wood fuels. This project will involve collaboration with archaeologists at several universities in the United States and Mexico, the Comision Nacional de areas Naturales Protegidas in Mexico, and the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This research will also refine archaeometric methods for estimating the diameter of a tree or branch from a charcoal fragment and will contribute to the training of a minority doctoral student in archaeobotanical methods and the use of a scanning election microscope.Over the last several decades, research in anthracology (the study of charcoal recovered from archaeological sites) has become increasingly relevant to understanding of human-environment dynamics and how societies succeed or fail to achieve long-term resource security. The field's understanding of human fuelwood collection is currently based on a model guided by the "Principle of Least Effort," which expects wood gatherers to optimize the amount of energy gained in each harvest. Since the difference in heat release between higher and lower quality fuelwoods is marginal compared to the heavy labor cost of harvesting and transporting wood, this model assumes that ancient harvesters prioritized convenience and were relatively indiscriminating about which species they harvested. While this model appears to adequately explain species distribution of charcoal assemblages in some archaeological cases, it does not fully explain assemblages that are dominated by a few types of wood or differences in the species composition of assemblages deposited contemporaneously at the same archaeological site. It also assumes that politics and social organization played little role in the way that cultures manage and consume fuelwood. Thus, this research will test the Principle of Least Effort model alongside an alternative model of firewood procurement grounded in Political Ecology and the social dynamics in Postclassic Maya communities. This latter model hypothesizes that social elites in those communities found ways to preserve their access to preferred wood types. This model predicts that the charcoal assemblages produced by elite activity (particularly those produced by public events like feasting) will be more likely to contain preferred species than assemblages produced by non-elite households.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.