Ethnoarchaeology of Marine Foraging

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，埃里克·史密斯博士和他的同事们将对梅里亚姆人进行民族考古实地考察。梅里亚姆人是美拉尼西亚人，居住在巴布亚新几内亚东南部托雷斯海峡最东端的三个岛屿上。这些岛屿被广阔的珊瑚礁和富含鱼类和贝类的深水所包围。虽然现在是澳大利亚公民，越来越依赖商店购买的面粉和大米，但梅里亚姆人仍然在他们的饮食中保留了重要的采集和捕鱼成分，并投入了相当大的努力从岩石海岸和潮间带地区采集贝类。史密斯博士和他的同事将研究贝类采集策略。虽然该项目采用人种学技术来研究现代人，但所提出的研究的直接意义主要是考古。世界上许多地方的史前沿海人口严重依赖贝类资源作为食物，许多考古遗址中都有丰富的贝壳。通过对这些材料的分析，科学家们试图重建居民的生存策略，并追踪史前采集者对景观的影响。例如，在世界上的一些地方，随着时间的推移，贝壳的大小越来越小，对较小物种的利用越来越多，考古学家假设存在过度开发。然而，Meriam项目成员过去的工作表明，在观察到的收集做法和最终沉积在营地的材料遗骸之间不存在简单而明确的关系。利用从最优觅食中衍生出的强大理论体系，调查人员将跟踪梅里亚姆觅食者并记录生存行为。他们将试图在这个理论框架内确定为什么会做出特定的觅食决定，以及特定行为的物质特征是什么。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对技术简单的采集者如何做出生存决策的理解。它还将为科学家提供一套工具和框架，以帮助解释世界许多地方的考古记录。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Eric Smith and his colleagues will conduct ethnoarchaeological fieldwork among the Meriam, a Melanesian group which inhabits the three easternmost islands in the Torres Strait, southeast of Papua New Guinea. The islands are surrounded by broad fringing reefs and deep waters which are rich in both fish and shellfish. Although now Australian citizens and increasingly reliant on store bought flour and rice, the Meriam still retain a significant gathering and fishing component in their diet and devote considerable effort to gathering shellfish from rocky shore and intertidal areas. Dr. Smith and his colleagues will study the shellfish gathering strategies employed. Although the project employs ethnographic techniques to study present day people, the direct significance of the proposed research is largely archaeological. Prehistoric coastal populations in many parts of the world relied heavily on shellfish resources for food and shells are abundant in many archaeological sites. Through analysis of such materials scientists attempt to reconstruct the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants and to trace the effects which prehistoric gatherers had on the landscape. Based for example on decreasing shell size over time and increasing utilization of smaller species in some parts of the world, archaeologists have postulated that overexploitation occurred. However past work by project members among the Meriam has shown that no simple and clear-cut relationship exists between observed collecting practices and material remains which are ultimately deposited at camp sites. Using a powerful body of theory which derives from optimal foraging, the investigators will follow Meriam foragers and record subsistence behavior. They will attempt to determine within this theoretical framework why particular foraging decisions are made and what the material signatures of specific behaviors are. The research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how subsistence decisions are made among technologically simple foragers. It will also provide scientists with a set of tools and framework to aid in interpretation of the archaeological record in many parts of the world.