Dissertation Improvement Grant: Swahili Urbanization and Food Production: Paleoethnobotanical Perspectives from Pemba Island, Tanzania AD 800-1600

在盖尔·j·弗里茨博士的指导下，萨拉·沃尔肖将收集和分析来自坦桑尼亚彭巴岛考古发掘的古代斯瓦希里植物食物生产和消费数据。烧焦的植物遗骸提供了关于古代饮食以及与植物加工有关的活动的最直接信息：收获、脱粒、簸扬、储存和烹饪。Walshaw女士将与由Adria LaViolette博士领导的一个由美国国家科学基金会资助的项目合作，从奔巴岛的五个考古遗址收集烧焦的植物材料，这些遗址代表了从小村庄定居点到人口密集社区的过渡（公元800-1600年）。她还将收集现代参考标本，以帮助鉴定考古植物遗骸，并在斯瓦希里自给自足的农民中进行调查，以确定过去可能是如何加工谷子、高粱和大米等作物的。粮食生产的集中控制伴随着世界上许多地区城市的兴起，城市管理者控制着谷物的加工、储存和再分配。我们对城市食品生产的大部分知识都来自于对等级组织城市的研究。因此，撒哈拉以南非洲更平等的社会提供了一个比较城市粮食生产的视角。Walshaw将调查植物食品生产在斯瓦希里城市化中的作用，以确定植物生产是否仍然主要是农村和家庭活动，或者是否在城市中发展了家庭控制之外的专业生产领域。这项研究为城市化期间斯瓦希里农村多数人的生活提供了一个窗口，它可能揭示了一个与从民族历史和富裕城市社区考古学中得出的阿拉伯人主导的模式截然不同的观点。这项研究代表了对撒哈拉以南非洲植物粮食生产的为数不多的综合研究之一，并将对我们理解一般的相对平等的粮食生产系统，特别是斯瓦希里植物的利用作出重大贡献。此外，东非植物的收集明显缺乏，因此本研究中收集的现代植物样本对未来的研究至关重要。这项研究将有助于国内外研究生的培养。沃尔肖将指导坦桑尼亚考古学的学生和教师恢复和分析考古植物遗骸，这是目前大学课程中不发达的方面。她还将与拉维奥莱特博士和其他团队成员一起，向现场周围的社区（包括当地的一所中学）展示考古数据。最后，在记录古代斯瓦希里植物粮食生产系统的过程中，沃尔肖将发现在亚洲（大米、椰子、香蕉、芒果）和新世界（玉米、木薯）作物（这些作物构成了今天非洲饮食的主食）引入之前，当地资源是如何被利用的。在非洲，土著粮食资源普遍未得到充分利用，增加对当地资源的依赖可能会改善严重受限的粮食基础。例如，东非的一种传统作物指谷子有可能成为降低婴儿死亡率的关键断奶食物，然而指谷子现在几乎不种植。这项研究可以帮助我们理解为什么非洲作物的使用减少了，以及它们在今天是如何有用的。

Under the supervision of Dr. Gayle J. Fritz, Sarah Walshaw will collect and analyze data on ancient Swahili plant food production and consumption derived from archaeological excavations on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Charred plant remains offer the most direct information about ancient diets as well as the activities associated with plant processing: harvesting, threshing, winnowing, storage, and cooking. Working with an NSF-funded project led by Dr. Adria LaViolette, Ms. Walshaw will collect charred plant material from five archaeological sites on Pemba that represent the transition (AD 800-1600) from small village settlements to densely populated communities. She will also collect modern reference specimens to aid in the identification of archaeological plant remains, and conduct surveys among Swahili subsistence farmers to determine how crops such as millet, sorghum, and rice may have been processed in the past.Centralized control of food production accompanied the rise of cities in many regions of the world, with city administrators controlling the processing, storage, and redistribution of grains. Much of our knowledge about urban food production derives from studies of hierarchically organized cities. The more egalitarian societies of sub-Saharan Africa, therefore, offer a comparative perspective on urban food production. Walshaw will investigate the role of plant food production in Swahili urbanization to determine whether plant production remained a predominantly rural, domestic activity, or whether specialized domains of production outside the control of the household developed in cities. This research offers a window into the lives of the Swahili rural majority during urbanization, which may reveal a considerably different view than the Arab-dominated model drawn from ethnohistory and the archaeology of wealthy urban communities. This research represents one of the few comprehensive studies of plant food production from sub-Saharan Africa, and will contribute significantly to our understanding of relatively egalitarian food production systems in general, and Swahili plant use in particular. Additionally, collections of East African plants are significantly lacking, therefore the modern plant samples collected during this study are essential to future research. This study will assist in graduate student training both here and abroad. Walshaw will instruct Tanzanian archaeology students and faculty in the recovery and analysis of archaeological plant remains, an underdeveloped aspect of the current university curriculum. She will also join Dr. LaViolette and additional team members in presenting archaeological data to the communities surrounding the field sites, including a local secondary school. Finally, in documenting the ancient Swahili plant food production system, Walshaw will discover how indigenous resources were used prior to the introduction of the Asian (rice, coconut, banana, mango) and New World (corn, cassava) crops that form the staples of African diets today. Indigenous food resources are generally underutilized in Africa, and increased reliance upon local resources may improve a critically limiting food base. For example, finger millet, a traditional East African crop, has the potential to be a critical weaning food that could reduce infant mortality, yet finger millet is scarcely grown today. This study may help us understand why African crops declined in use and how they might be useful today.