Support for the Advanced Seminar on Paleodietary Research at the University of California, Santa Cruz

该奖项为将在大学校园举行的第六届古饮食研究高级研讨会提供部分支持。高级研讨会一直是人类学家、地球化学家、古生物学家和生态系统科学家就化石化学可用于重建人类和其他哺乳动物的生态、生理和迁徙模式的方法进行高层讨论的主要论坛。大约30名研讨会参与者将探讨古人类古生物学的不同化学方法。名单从资深科学家到研究生，从考古学家到化学家，包括来自8个国家的演讲者。演讲者将探讨以下一般性主题：1)生物同位素信号如何受到生长动态和死后变化的影响；2)如何利用同位素研究人类活动的规模和模式；3)研究原始人饮食和栖息地使用的新同位素工具；4)如何在化石的同位素组成中反映生理和营养状况。例如，几位演讲者将重点讨论数百万年前的南方古猿的生态和饮食，确定这些现代人的近亲食用肉食植物的程度。另一组演讲者将专注于过去几千年来现代人的饮食和食品加工技术。一些演讲者将研究人类迁徙模式和营养状况的变化，将气候和文化变化之间的相互作用视为原因。正如以往所有研讨会的情况一样，我们将发表一系列演讲产生的论文，最好是作为考古期刊的特刊。该出版物将总结重要的进展，以集中格式向专家和非专家提供成果。如果这本书有什么指导意义的话，出版物中探讨的人类和动物生态学、生物地球化学和环境重建的化学方法将延伸到许多其他领域的工作人员。在过去的30年里，人类学家和考古学家使用化学方法开辟了一条道路，这条道路最近被野生生物学家、陆地古气候学家和全球变化研究人员发现。第六届古饮食研究高级研讨会应该延续这一传统。

This award provides partial support for the 6th Advanced Seminar on Paleodietary Research, to be held on the campus of the Univ. of California, Santa Cruz in September 2001.The Advanced Seminars have been the premier forum for high-level discussionamong anthropologists, geochemists, paleobiologists, and ecosystemscientists about the ways that fossil chemistry can be used to reconstructthe ecology, physiology, and migration patterns of humans and othermammals. Approximately 30 seminar participants will explore the diversechemical approaches to hominid paleobiology. The list ranges from seniorscientists to graduate students and from archaeologists to chemists,including speakers from 8 nations. The speakers will examine the followinggeneral topics: 1) how biological isotope signals are influenced by theeffects of growth dynamics and post-mortem alteration, 2) how isotopes canbe used to study the scale and pattern of human mobility, 3) new isotopictools for studying hominid diets and habitat use, and 4) how physiology andnutritional status are reflected in the isotope composition of fossils.For example, several speakers will focus on the ecology and diet ofaustralopithecines that are several million years old, determining theextent to which these relatives of modern humans consumed meat versusplants. Another set of speakers will focus on the diets and foodprocessing technologies of modern humans over the past few thousand years.A number of speakers will examine shifts in human migration patterns andnutritional status, looking at the interplay between climate and culturalchange as causal agents. As has been the case with all of previousseminars, we will publish a set of papers resulting from the presentations,preferably as a special issue of an archaeological journal. Thepublication will summarize important advances, making results available ina centralized format to both specialists and non-specialists. If the pastis any guide, the chemical approaches to human and animal ecology,biogeochemistry, and environmental reconstruction explored in thepublication will extend to workers in many other fields. For thepast 30 years, anthropologists and archaeologists using chemical methodshave been blazing a trail, a trail that has recently been picked up bywildlife biologists, terrestrial paleoclimatologists and global changeresearchers. The 6th Advanced Seminar on Paleodietary Research shouldcontinue this tradition.