Doctoral Dissertation Research: Diet Alteration in a High Altitude Environment

博士论文研究：高海拔环境下的饮食改变

• 批准号: 2104477
• 负责人: Brian Stewart
• 金额: $ 2.49万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-04-01 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2104477&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Diet; Alteration

This doctoral dissertation project examines the dynamic adaptive mechanisms and cultural interactions that have contributed to large-scale sustained human occupations of high-altitude environments. High-elevation environments exceeding 2500 meters above sea level pose severe biological, ecological, and logistical challenges for human adaptation. While it is recognized that humans have used such settings on an ephemeral basis for thousands of years, catalysts of sustained year-round human occupation of such places remain a matter of debate. This project examines this issues in a region with an average elevation of over 4500 meters above sea level and focuses on the introduction of cold-adapted domesticated species which are believed to have contributed significantly to permanent human occupation. However, the prehistoric archaeology of the area is in its infancy. Such high-altitude zones can provide anthropologists with appropriate laboratories to examine the impact of novel technologies and interactions on people living in high-elevation extremes. It is to such regions that scholars must turn to discover the causes and process of human engagements. Using a theoretical framework blending risk-reduction and optimization-based models of high-altitude foragers with culture contact dynamics, the doctoral student and colleagues develop hypotheses that attempt to capture the range of risk-management strategies adopted by local occupants given the region's formidable natural constraints. These hypotheses are evaluated via an integrated program of excavation at a site with a well-stratified cultural sequence. The project addresses major questions of culture-historic importance for understanding the sustained long-term occupation at high elevations and documents an entirely new and potentially unprecedented cultural complex.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.

该博士论文项目研究了动态的自适应机制和文化互动，这些机制和文化互动有助于大规模的高空环境持续人类职业。高海拔地区的高海拔环境超过海平面，构成了人类适应的严重生物学，生态和后勤挑战。尽管人们认识到人类已经在短暂的基础上使用了数千年的情况，但全年持续的人类占领的催化剂仍然是辩论的问题。该项目在一个地区的平均海拔高度高4500米的地区研究了这一问题，并着重于引入冷适应的驯养物种，这些物种被认为对永久性人类职业产生了重大贡献。但是，该地区的史前考古学仍处于起步阶段。这样的高海拔地区可以为人类学家提供适当的实验室，以检查新技术和相互作用对生活在高海拔极端的人们的影响。正是在这样的地区，学者必须转向发现人类参与的原因和过程。博士生和同事使用理论框架融合了具有文化接触动力学的高海拔觅食者的基于优化的高海拔觅食者的模型，研究了假设的假设，这些假设试图捕获该地区强大的自然约束，试图捕获本地居民采用的一系列风险管理策略。这些假设是通过具有良好分层文化序列的站点的综合发掘程序来评估的。该项目解决了文化历史重要性的主要问题，以理解高海拔高度的持续长期职业，并记录了一个全新的，可能是前所未有的文化综合体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来支持的。