Doctoral Dissertation Research: Roots of Complexity: Tubers, Cuisine, and Surplus Production in the Gulf of Alaska

人类学家长期以来一直认为，肉类，特别是鲑鱼，主导了北太平洋的烹饪世界。这种对动物食物的关注掩盖了植物在沿海狩猎采集者的生存、储存和烹饪系统中所扮演的角色。生态学知识和历史记载表明，根茎类食物，如块茎、鳞茎、球茎、根茎和根，是整个这一地区碳水化合物的重要来源。本论文的研究测试的角色块茎中发挥的作用出现的剩余生产，等级制度，并在科迪亚克群岛，阿拉斯加湾西部的盛宴假说。该项目评估了来自科迪亚克群岛遗址和来源的多条证据线，包括考古样本和根食物生产和消费的民族历史记录。共同PI将分析来自家庭和社区坑烤特征的烧焦植物遗骸;陶瓷容器的大小和形状;保存在烹饪锅上的淀粉残留物，以及稳定的碳和氮同位素比率，以重建过去的膳食。选定材料的放射性碳年代测定将提供年代控制。这些多个数据源的整合将澄清根食物在基于状态的食物生产和消费行为中的作用。共同PI将产生论文和同行评审的期刊文章，并呈现结果给当地阿拉斯加和学术观众。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。

Anthropologists have long suggested that meat—especially salmon—dominated the North Pacific culinary world. This focus on animal foods has obscured the roles plants played in the subsistence, storage, and culinary systems of coastal hunter-gatherers. Ecological knowledge and historic accounts demonstrate that root-foods, such as tubers, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and roots, were critical sources of carbohydrates throughout this region. This dissertation research tests hypotheses about the roles tubers played in the emergence of surplus production, hierarchy, and feasting in the Kodiak Archipelago, western Gulf of Alaska. Research results have implications for understanding broader patterns of human adaptation across the North Pacific.This project evaluates multiple lines of evidence from sites and sources in the Kodiak Archipelago, including archaeological samples and ethnohistoric accounts of root-food production and consumption. The co-PI will analyze charred plant remains from household and communal pit-roasting features; the size and shape of ceramic vessels; starch residues preserved on cooking pots, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to reconstruct past meals. Radiocarbon dating of selected materials will provide chronological control. Integration of these multiple data sources will clarify the roles of root foods in status-based food production and consumption behaviors. The co-PI will produce a dissertation and peer-reviewed journal articles and present results to local Alaska and academic audiences.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.