Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rodent Commensals of Maasai Settlements: Ethnoarchaeology of Pastoral Mobility

在菲奥娜·马歇尔博士的指导下，Lior Weissbrod先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将研究当代马赛牧民村落中的小型啮齿动物群落，以确定动物群组成与定居程度之间的关系。马赛人是一个牧民，靠成群的牛、绵羊和山羊为生。根据附近环境的季节性变化程度，一些群体可以在一个单一地点保持常年居住，而另一些群体必须季节性搬迁。Weissbrod先生将通过比较村庄之间以及村庄与周围地区的啮齿动物种群数量，确定迁移性与特定物种的啮齿动物种群结构之间的关系。其目标是开发一种考古上适用的工具，使考古学家能够根据出土的啮齿动物遗骸重建史前人类活动的程度。由于不同的保存和埋葬可能会产生偏见，而挖掘出的遗骸可能只间接反映了以前的活着人口，因此魏斯布罗德先生还将在马赛村庄进行挖掘，以确定观察到的活着人口和被埋葬的骨骼人口之间的关系。然后，他将在一处考古遗址的收藏品上测试他的方法。流动牧民是非洲最早的食物生产者。在生存和史前游牧群体内部和之间的关系组织方面，存在着相当大的差异。目前这项研究的一个重要基本目标是了解不同的社会、经济和政治因素如何促成这些模式以及非洲粮食生产的发展和扩散。流动性是牧民用来应对干旱土地上不可预测的资源和不断变化的经济和政治环境的一项基本战略。重建史前游牧群体的流动性维度，包括占领时间和群体规模，对于理解社会、经济和政治组织的变异性的性质至关重要，魏斯布罗德先生的研究将为这一进程提供帮助。这一奖项还将进一步促进一位有前途的年轻科学家的学术和智力发展。

Under the direction of Dr. Fiona Marshall, Mr. Lior Weissbrod will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will study small rodent faunas in contemporary Maasai pastoralist villages to determine the relationship between faunal composition and the degree of sedentism. The Maasai are a pastoral people dependent on herds of cattle, sheep and goats for food. Based on the degree of seasonal change in the immediate environment, some groups can maintain year round residence in a single location while others must move seasonally. Through comparison of the rodent populations both across villages and between villages and the surrounding area Mr. Weissbrod will determine the relationship between mobility and species specific rodent population structure. The goal is to develop an archaeologically applicable tool which will permit archaeologists to reconstruct degree of prehistoric human mobility based on excavated rodent remains. Since bias can result through differential preservation and burial, and excavated remains may only indirect reflect the prior living population, Mr. Weissbrod will also conduct excavations in Maasai villages to determine the relationship between observed living and buried skeletal populations. He will then test his methods on collections from an excavated archaeological site.Mobile pastoralists were the earliest food producers in Africa. There was considerable variation in subsistence and in the organization of relations within and among prehistoric pastoral groups. An important underlying goal of the current research is to understand how varying social, economic and political factors contributed to these patterns and to the development and spread of food production in Africa. Mobility is an essential strategy used by pastoralists to cope with unpredictable resources in arid lands and with changing economic and political circumstances. Reconstructing the dimensions of mobility of prehistoric pastoral groups, including length of occupation and group size is central to understanding the nature of variability in social, economic and political organization and Mr. Weissbrod's research will provide a tool to help in this process. This award will also further the academic and intellectual development of a promising young scientist.