Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Subsistence Adaptation in a High Altitude Environment

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Zhengwei Zhang and Dr. Xinyi Liu, of the Washington University in St. Louis, along with colleagues will conduct research to explore the animal-based subsistence strategies in a high altitude extreme environment. Understanding of the development of high-altitude adaptations in has been enriched by recent anthropological investigations. Such studies have revealed specific challenges regarding strategies for securing a reliable food supply in different seasons. The goal of this research is to increase understanding of how to achieve long-term resilience in the context of concerns regarding food security and more frequent extreme climate events. Archaeology is well placed to provide meaningful insights on resilience because it provides information on people’s behaviors over a long time span. This research will promote understanding of the past, as well as the present by documenting invaluable animal resources and resilient strategies in harsh areas, where biodiversity is threatened. Educational and outreach activities will deepen broad scale academic cooperation, as well as facilitate the development of open academic environments. By focusing on animal resources that people used at high altitudes, this research explores the ways that societies were able to be more resilient to periodic stresses and to survive despite the inhospitable and unpredictable environment. The researchers will conduct comprehensive study of prehistoric animal remains from one of the world’s most inhospitable areas. The questions of how farming and hunting settlers managed to live year-round in this high altitude region remain largely unanswered and have been obscured by the scarcity of zooarchaeological studies conducted to date. The researchers will combine systematic zooarchaeological and stable isotopes analyses, and regional ethnographical surveys. This research will reveal animal-based subsistence strategies of pastoral groups and investigate at high resolution how they managed livestock and utilized local natural landscapes. This research has the potential to shed light on human communities’ resilience in extreme environments worldwide.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.