Biological Implications of Gender Roles in Mobile Pastoralist Societies

数千年来，牧民社区在塑造人类历史方面发挥了重要作用，作为一种生存策略，畜牧业在世界许多地方继续存在。这个项目测试了先前关于游牧社会平等主义本质的假设，使用生物考古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。该研究推进了关于性别经验和人类适应策略的生物学影响的知识，这些策略已被人类群体在不断变化的社会和自然环境中采用。该项目包括一个全面的计划，以加强STEM领域的教育和资源，促进文化遗产的公众宣传和保护工作，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科学交流和传播研究成果的策略。研究人员检查了饮食、健康、生理压力和断奶策略的骨骼标记，以检验牧民中平等主义的假设，并期望性别经验会因社会分层的增加而有所不同，即使在流动性更强的牧民群体中也是如此。该项目采用分析化学、宏观骨骼评估、通过3D激光扫描进行形态表征和牙齿微磨损分析，以获得和比较过去许多人群的饮食、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制定了全面的饮食和健康指数，包括一些群体流动性增加、另一些群体定居化以及社会分层扩大的时期。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；3)群体内部和群体之间采用的断奶策略的时间和性质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，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.