Collaborative Research: The Relationship between Agriculture and Social Change

合作研究：农业与社会变革的关系

• 批准号: 2243117
• 负责人: Matthew Velasco
• 金额: $ 6.37万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2243117&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Relationship; between; Agriculture

This project investigates prehistoric farming practices to understand how wealth and inequality are generated under conditions of crisis. Intensive farming and the control of agricultural surplus have long been understood as key factors amplifying social inequality. In turn, during periods of ecological and social instability, it is assumed that farmers adopt more diverse and dispersed farming and herding strategies, resulting in limited wealth and inequality. Yet, this traditional account makes simplistic assumptions about the relationship between food production, the environment, and sociopolitical complexity. Can intensive farming persist despite conditions of drought, warfare, and political instability? Conversely, can the adoption of more diverse subsistence strategies actually lead to widening social inequality? Archaeology is well suited to investigate acute and long-term changes in farming, the environment, and human relationships. This project takes on immediate urgency in the present when traditional farmers and pastoralists in marginal environments around the world face increasing sociopolitical and ecological challenges. Through this project, the primary investigators train undergraduate and graduate students in transnational archaeological field methods and in cutting-edge analytical methods at their respective universities in the US, preparing the next generation for careers in science and cultural resource management.The research team analyzes direct proxies of agricultural and pastoral practices and compare them to measures of social inequality during a period of long-term drought and dramatic sociopolitical changes. The research takes place in a prehistoric highland valley, a region with significant deep time human occupation, vast agricultural infrastructure, and abundant natural resources. The researchers excavate a large settlement and associated agricultural terraces, analyze excavated materials and legacy collections from multiple sites, and conduct specialized chemical analysis of human, plant, animal, and soil remains to reconstruct food webs, field management systems, and patterns of human and herd mobility. They also analyze land use and settlement patterns using unmanned aerial vehicles, three-dimensional computer modeling, and Geographic Information Systems. The multi-methodological approach allows the researchers to investigate agropastoral strategies and sociopolitical organization across communities living in close proximity but with different ecological potentials and divergent sociopolitical histories.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.

该项目调查史前农业实践，以了解在危机条件下财富和不平等是如何产生的。长期以来，集约化农业和农业剩余控制一直被认为是加剧社会不平等的关键因素。反过来，在生态和社会不稳定时期，人们认为农民采取更加多样化和分散的耕作和放牧战略，导致财富有限和不平等。然而，这种传统的解释对粮食生产、环境和社会政治复杂性之间的关系做出了过于简单的假设。在干旱、战争和政治不稳定的情况下，集约化农业能持续下去吗？反过来说，采取更多样化的生存战略实际上会导致社会不平等的扩大吗？考古学非常适合调查农业，环境和人类关系的急性和长期变化。目前，世界各地边缘环境中的传统农民和牧民面临着越来越多的社会政治和生态挑战，该项目具有紧迫性。通过这个项目，主要研究人员在美国各自的大学对本科生和研究生进行跨国考古现场方法和尖端分析方法的培训，为下一代在科学和文化资源管理方面的职业生涯做好准备。研究小组分析了农业和畜牧业实践的直接代理，并将其与长期以来社会不平等的衡量标准进行了比较，长期干旱和剧烈的社会政治变化。该研究发生在史前高原山谷，这是一个有着重要的人类占领，巨大的农业基础设施和丰富的自然资源的地区。研究人员挖掘了一个大型定居点和相关的农业梯田，分析了多个地点的出土材料和遗产收藏，并对人类，植物，动物和土壤遗骸进行了专门的化学分析，以重建食物网，田间管理系统以及人类和牛群的流动模式。他们还使用无人驾驶飞行器，三维计算机建模和地理信息系统分析土地使用和定居模式。多方法的方法使研究人员能够调查农牧战略和社会政治组织在社区生活在附近，但具有不同的生态潜力和不同的社会政治历史。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。