Biological Implications of Gender Roles in Mobile Pastoralist Societies

几千年来，牧民社区在塑造人类历史方面发挥了作用，作为一种生存战略，牧民生活继续在世界许多地区实行。这个项目测试了之前关于牧民社会平等主义性质的假设，使用生物考古学方法和数据来调查饮食、流动性和社会组织等因素如何根据年龄和性别对人们产生不同的影响。这项研究促进了关于性别体验和人类适应策略的生物学影响的知识，人类群体在不断变化的社会和自然环境中采用了这些策略。该项目包括一个全面的计划，以加强STEM领域的教育和资源，促进公共宣传和文化遗产保护工作，并提供先进数据分析方法的分析培训，包括同位素分析和牙齿微磨损研究。研究人员还制定了与国际同行进行有效的科学交流和研究成果传播的策略。研究人员检查饮食、健康、生理压力和断奶策略的骨学标记，以测试牧民中平等主义的假设，期望性别体验将因社会分层的增加而不同，即使在流动性更强的牧民群体中也是如此。该项目使用分析化学、宏观骨骼评估、通过3D激光扫描的形态特征和牙齿微磨损分析，来获得和比较一些过去人群的饮食、健康和压力的详细评估。为生活在重大文化转型时期的群体编制了全面的饮食和健康指数，包括一些群体的流动性增加和另一些群体的定居时间，以及不断扩大的社会阶层。这一研究策略允许检查1)与性别角色相关的生物文化影响、健康状况和生理压力的潜在变化，以测试平等主义的概念；2)饮食特征，以评估群体之间的连续性和变化，以及3)群体内和群体之间采用的断奶策略的时机和性质。该奖项反映了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。

Pastoralist communities have played a role in shaping human history over thousands of years, and as a subsistence strategy, pastoralism continues to be practiced in many parts of the world. This project tests previous assumptions about the egalitarian nature of pastoralist societies, using bioarchaeological methods and data to investigate how factors such as diet, mobility, and social organization may have impacted people differently depending on age and sex. The research advances knowledge about the biological impacts of gendered experience and human adaptive strategies that have been employed by human groups in shifting social and natural environments. The project includes a comprehensive program to strengthen education and resources in STEM fields, facilitate public outreach and conservation efforts in cultural heritage, and provide analytical training in advanced methods of data analysis including isotope analysis and dental microwear studies. The investigators also develop strategies for effective science communication and dissemination of research findings with international colleagues.The investigators examine osteological markers of diet, health, physiological stress, and weaning strategies to test assumptions of egalitarianism among pastoralists, with the expectation that gendered experience will differ as a result of increasing social stratification, even among more mobile pastoralist groups. The project employs analytical chemistry, macroscopic skeletal assessment, morphological characterization through 3D laser scanning, and dental microwear analysis, to obtain and compare detailed assessments of diet, health, and stress across a number of past populations. Comprehensive diet and health indices are generated for groups living during periods of significant cultural transformation, including times of increased mobility for some groups and sedentarization for others, as well as widening social stratification. This research strategy allows examination of 1) potential variation in biocultural impacts, health profiles, and physiological stress associated with gender roles to test notions of egalitarianism; 2) dietary signatures to assess continuity and change among groups, and 3) the timing and nature of weaning strategies employed within and between populations.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.