Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Tribes, States and Landscapes: Social Structure, Land Use, and Ecological Sustainability in Islamic Iberia

拟议的研究侧重于人与环境的相互作用，特别是社会组织如何在几个世纪的尺度上影响人类对环境的影响。伊比利亚的伊斯兰时期(公元711-1492年)为本研究提供了一个理想的背景。伊斯兰国家al-Andalus的结构与西欧其他地区的封建制度不同。在伊斯兰时期的开始、期间和末期，政治和经济制度的变化允许对与不同社会制度相关的生态影响进行额外的比较。葡萄牙东南部的研究区域很容易退化，两千年来气候一直相对稳定，这有利于研究人类对环境的修改。研究分为三个阶段。第一个是记录随着时间推移在农地利用强度和组织方面的变化。在平方公里的范围内完成了现场调查，补充了之前的调查和一系列发掘。这些调查表明，与早期或后期相比，伊斯兰时期的农村人口更富有，人数更多。他们还深入了解了安达卢斯的农村社会组织和城乡互动模式。在第二阶段，将利用地质技术确定调查地区土壤侵蚀的时间和严重程度。初步结果表明，在伊斯兰时期，当人口密度增加时，就会发生侵蚀。地质调查的结果将被用来创建一个基于地理信息系统(GIS)的地貌随时间变化的描述性模型。第三阶段的研究将详细研究人类活动与景观变化之间的联系。将使用几种测年方法来确定景观变化的时间以及与职业的相关性。对植物遗骸的研究将展示人类如何改变当地的植被，而两个具有不同聚落历史的地区的比较将突出人类活动的影响。最后，一项树枝气候学(树轮)研究将考察过去气候变化影响人类和景观的可能性。这项研究的学术价值体现在它在三个层面上的贡献：历史、方法论和人类学。首先，它将为安达卢斯的成功和最终衰落提供一个新的视角。这也将大大增加关于伊斯兰伊比利亚的考古研究的一小部分。在方法论上，该研究在地质考古学、环境考古学和历史生态学领域做出了重要贡献。通过关注小流域的河流系统和坡度过程，这项研究比大多数类似的调查更详细地调查了景观变化。它还强调人类活动最有可能造成侵蚀和土壤枯竭的高地环境。这些数据与古气候学重建以及土地利用和地貌变化的历史比较相结合，将产生迄今为止在地中海区域对人类与地貌相互作用进行的最彻底和分析最合理的调查之一。除了方法论上的贡献，拟议研究的更广泛的影响在一般人类学层面上也是显而易见的。这项研究承诺展示替代形式的社会组织如何调解生存活动的生态影响。具体地说，伊斯兰国的政治结构和经济对农村社会经济组织产生了重大影响。通过探索al-Andalus农业活动的长期生态影响，这项研究将增加对有利于或反对可持续生产的条件的了解。这些信息可能具有深远的意义，因为它为当今全球人民面临的重要生态问题提供了一个新的视角。这项研究还将提供一个案例研究，以了解前现代国家一级政治的动态，包括从历史和考古记录中推断出的周期性兴衰的表象模式、权力的内部动态以及组织形式的多样性。最后，调查有助于跨学科和国际科学合作，以及完成一个学生的博士学位。

The proposed research focuses on human-environment interactions and specifically the ways social organization affects human impacts on the environment at the scale of centuries. The Islamic period in Iberia (A.D. 711-1492) provides an ideal setting for this investigation. Al-Andalus, the Islamic state, was structured differently than the feudal systems in the rest of Western Europe. Changes in political and economic systems at the beginning, during, and at the end of the Islamic period allow for additional comparisons of the ecological impacts associated with different social systems. The study area in southeastern Portugal is susceptible to degradation and the climate has been relatively stable for two millennia, facilitating study of human modification of the environment. The research consists of three phases. The first was to document changes through time in the intensity and organization of agrarian land use. A site survey was completed in a 64 km2 area, complementing a previous survey and series of excavations. These investigations showed that rural populations were wealthier and more numerous during the Islamic period than in earlier or later periods. They also provided insight into rural social organization and patterns of rural-urban interaction in al-Andalus. In the second stage, the timing and severity of soil erosion in the surveyed areas will be determined using geological techniques. Preliminary results suggest that erosion occurred when population densities increased during the Islamic period. The results of the geological investigations will be used to create a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based descriptive model of landscape change through time. The third phase of research will examine in detail the links between human activities and landscape change. Several dating methods will be used to determine the timing of landscape change and correlations with occupation. Studies of plant remains will show how people altered the local vegetation, and a comparison of two areas with different settlement histories will highlight the effects of human activities. Finally, a dendroclimatological (tree ring) study will examine the possibility that past climate change affected humans and the landscape. The intellectual merit of this research is reflected in its contributions at three levels: historical, methodological and anthropological. First, it will provide a new perspective on the success and eventual decline of al-Andalus. It also will add considerably to the small body of archaeological research concerning Islamic Iberia. Methodologically, the research makes important contributions to the fields of geoarchaeology, environmental archaeology and historical ecology. By focusing on stream systems and slope processes in small drainage basins, this study investigates landscape change in greater detail than most similar investigations. It also emphasizes upland environments where human activities are most likely to cause erosion and soil exhaustion. These data, when combined with paleoclimatological reconstruction and comparative histories of land use and landscape change, will result in one of the most thorough and analytically sound investigations of human interactions with the landscape undertaken to date in the Mediterranean region. Beyond its methodological contributions, the broader impacts of the proposed research are apparent at the general anthropological level. This study promises to show how alternative forms of social organization mediate the ecological impacts of subsistence activities. Specifically, the political structure and economy of the Islamic state significantly affected rural social and economic organization. By exploring the long-term ecological impacts of agrarian activities in al-Andalus, this research will add to understanding of the conditions favoring or opposing sustainable production. This information could have far-reaching significance in that it provides a new perspective on important ecological problems facing people around the globe today. The research also will provide a case study relevant to understanding the dynamics of premodern state-level polities, including the apparent pattern of cyclical growth and decline, the internal dynamics of power, and the variety of forms of organization inferred from the historical and archaeological records. Finally, the investigation contributes to interdisciplinary and international scientific collaboration as well as completion of a student's Doctoral degree.