U.S.-South Africa Dissertation Enhancement: Seasonal Variation in the Hunting Activities of the Prehistoric Inhabitants of the South African Cape

9731229 marian & Lam此论文强化资助资助美国研究生林银文先生在纽约州立大学石溪分校人类学副教授Curtis W. marian博士的指导下，到南非进行实地研究。南非好望角有一些解剖学上最早的现代人化石证据，从中我们了解了很多关于现代人类行为进化的知识。但是，对于中石器时代（MSA）人和晚石器时代（LSA）的狩猎采集者在一年中的不同时间与猎物相互作用的方式，或者这些相互作用的时间是否影响了他们适应气候和资源可用性的季节变化的方式，人们知之甚少。通过确定人类觅食者与猎物相互作用和杀死猎物的时间，林先生假设可以确定MSA和LSA人的职业季节。猎物的死亡季节，特别是牛科动物和海豹的死亡季节，将通过使用一种技术来确定，该技术将分析以前从MSA和LSA遗址提取的猎物化石中颌骨标本的骨质增量，以及从开普省全年降雨和冬季降雨地区收集的现代样本。结果数据将被解释，以确定早期和最近的现代人是否使用不同的觅食模式，以及这些模式是否是由于气候、人口压力或他们各自的认知能力等变量的变化。预计这些结果将确定史前人民如何对其环境中的季节性气候和资源波动作出反应，从而可以更好地了解早期和现代人民如何适应更新世期间发生的许多大规模气候变化。研究猎物齿突生长增量的分析技术以前从未在这个地区使用过，林先生还希望研究结果能表明，将这项技术用于解释非洲南部考古数据的可行性。南非博物馆和开普敦大学考古学系的工作人员将与林先生合作开展这个项目。这项研究将扩大对南非开普地区史前人类行为和进化的现有知识，并将为解释该地区的考古数据创建一个骨质增量分析样本的参考集合。此外，它还将探索使用骨水泥增量分析技术研究非洲南部史前人类行为的可行性。该基金还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的，独立的研究生涯。该项目的资金由国际项目司和社会、行为和经济研究司共同提供。

9731229 Marean & Lam This dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Mr. Yin-Man Lam, working under the guidance of Dr. Curtis W. Marean, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, to do field research in South Africa. The South African Cape contains some of the earliest fossil evidence of anatomically modern humans, from which much has been learned about the evolution of modern human behavior. But little is known about the manner in which Middle Stone Age (MSA) peoples and Late Stone Age (LSA) hunter-gatherers interacted with prey animals at different times of the year, or if the timing of those interactions influenced the manner in which they adapted to seasonal variations in climate and resource availability. By determining the time of the year during which human foragers interacted with and killed prey animals, Mr. Lam hypothesizes that the season of occupation of MSA and LSA peoples can be identified. The season of death of prey animals, specifically bovids and seals, will be determined by use of a technique which will analyze the cementum increments of mandibular specimens from fossil prey animals previously extracted from MSA and LSA sites, and from modern samples collected from the all-year rainfall and winter rainfall regions of the Cape. The resulting data will be interpreted to determine if early and recent modern humans used different foraging patterns, and whether those patterns were due to changes in such variables as climate, population pressure, or their respective cognitive abilities. The results are expected to identify how prehistoric peoples reacted to seasonal climatic and resource fluctuations in their environment, from which a better understanding can be gained about the manner in which early and modern peoples adapted to the many large-scale climatic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene. The analytical technique of studying growth increments in the tooth cem entum of prey animals has not been used before in this region, and Mr. Lam also expects the results to show its feasibility of using the technique for the interpretation of archaeological data from southern Africa. Staff members at the South African Museum and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town will collaborate with Mr. Lam on this project. This study will expand the existing knowledge of prehistoric human behavior and evolution in the South African Cape, and it will create a reference collection of cementum increment analysis samples for the interpretation of archaeological data from the region. Additionally, it will also explore the feasibility of using the cementum increment analysis technique for the study of prehistoric human behavior in southern Africa. The grant will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career. Funding for this project is being jointly provided by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research.