Sustainability across the Neotropics: an archaeological perspective from the pre-Columbian Maya lowlands to the Amazon basin

热带森林退化是21世纪最紧迫的环境挑战之一。然而，目前在热带森林环境中的环境保护工作往往不会导致预期的结果，因为组织和政府正在尝试新的（据称）可持续战略和政策，但缺乏对其成功进行评估的长期数据。通过这个博士项目，我的目标是通过利用考古学的能力，从过去的（非）可持续土地利用中吸取教训，并积极将这些知识应用于当代环境辩论和政策，以提高我们对这些环境中环境可持续性动态的有限理解。我打算通过对中美洲低地（佩滕盆地）和亚马逊盆地（桑塔雷姆和利亚诺斯德莫霍斯）热带森林中的某些前哥伦布社会进行比较历史生态研究来实现这一目标。随后，将根据考古结果对这些地区的现代环境政策进行审查和验证。我的博士项目将寻求解决以下研究问题：1）什么是经济，社会文化和前哥伦布时期的社会在佩滕盆地，桑塔雷姆和Llanos de Mojos的热带森林环境中的环境稳定性之间的关系？2)这些关系的特点是波动还是有长期稳定的系统？3)如果在哥伦布发现美洲大陆之前就有可持续的系统，那么是什么样的土地管理战略使之成为可能？4)对这些证据进行跨文化比较分析，对这些热带森林环境中过去社会的环境、经济和社会文化可持续性有何见解？5)考古学在现代发展计划和环境政策的验证中是否有价值？在该项目的第一个分析阶段，将在佩滕盆地、桑塔雷姆和利亚诺斯德莫霍斯的个案研究范围内，分析人与环境关系的特点和前哥伦布时期社会在不同社会文化复杂程度上的可持续性。为了重建过去的自然和文化环境，将在每个案例研究中分析现有的深层古气候、古环境和考古记录。可持续性将通过一种基于“可持续性圈”和“甜甜圈”模式的改编版的方法来衡量，这两种模式在现代可持续性评估中都很常见。第二阶段将在区域一级对结果进行跨文化分析，在地理信息系统环境中比较和综合中美洲低地和亚马逊盆地的案例研究，从而深入了解是什么使某些社会比其他社会更具或更不具可持续性。最后，前几个阶段的考古成果将用于解决最后一个阶段，在那里我将反思现代发展计划和环境政策的有效性，这些计划和政策旨在改善当地研究区域的发展和环境可持续性。这最后一个阶段将允许“现实世界”实施本研究项目所产生的知识，通过表明如何在这些环境中当前的环境可持续性可以根据考古结果得到改善，以及现代战略将在其特定环境中具有低或高的潜力。从而防止“车轮的再发明”。此外，由于其本土性质，这些见解将更容易接受当地社区比目前常见的实施新的西方思想。最终，这个博士项目提供了一个机会，致力于一个有影响力的考古学是高度相关的21世纪世纪的环境挑战。

The degradation of tropical forests is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century. However, current environmental conservation efforts in tropical forest environments often do not lead to desired results as organizations and governments experiment with new (allegedly) sustainable strategies and policies yet lack deep-time data in the evaluation of their success. With this PhD project, I aim to improve our limited understanding of the dynamics of environmental sustainability in these environments by utilizing archaeology's capability to take lessons from the past on (un)sustainable land-use and to actively apply this knowledge to contemporary environmental debate and policy. This I intend to achieve through a comparative historical ecological study of selected pre-Columbian societies in the tropical forests of lowland Central America (Petén Basin) and the Amazon basin (Santarem and Llanos de Mojos). Subsequently, modern environmental policies in those regions will be scrutinized and validated based on the archaeological results. My doctoral project will seek to address the following research questions: 1) What is the relationship between economic, socio-cultural and environmental stability of pre-Columbian societies in the tropical forest environments of the Petén basin, Santarem and Llanos de Mojos? 2) Are these relationships characterized by fluctuation or were there long-term stable systems in place? 3) If there have been pre-Columbian sustainable systems in place, what land management strategies made this possible? 4) What insights does a cross-cultural comparative analysis of this evidence provide in the environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability of past societies within these tropical forest environments? 5) Can archaeology be of value in the validation of modern development plans and environmental policy? During the first analytical stage of the project, the character of human-environment relationships and sustainability of pre-Columbian societies, across different levels of socio-cultural complexity, will be analysed within the case studies of the Petén basin, Santarem and Llanos de Mojos. To allow the reconstruction of past natural and cultural environments, existing deep-time paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental and archaeological records will be analysed within each of the case studies. Sustainability will be measured through a method based on an adapted version of the 'Circles of Sustainability' and 'Doughnut' models, which both are common in modern evaluations of sustainability. The second stage will see the cross-cultural analysis of the results on a regional level, comparing and synthesizing the case studies from both lowland Central America and the Amazon basin within a GIS environment which will allow insights in what made certain societies more, or less, sustainable than others. Finally, the archaeological results of the previous stages will be used to address the final stage, where I will reflect on the validity of modern development plans and environmental policies that are meant to improve development and environmental sustainability within the local study areas. This final stage will allow 'real-world' implementation of the knowledge generated by this research project, by indicating how current environmental sustainability in those environments can be improved based on the archaeological results and which modern strategies would have low or high potential in their specific environments. Thus preventing 're-invention of the wheel'. In addition, due to their indigenous nature, these insights would be much more receptive to local communities than the currently common implementation of novel western ideas. Ultimately, this PhD project offers the opportunity to work towards an impactful archaeology that is highly relevant to the environmental challenges of the 21st century.