Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Risk- Reducing Subsistence Strategies and Prehistoric Population Growth: A Case-study from Santa Cruz Island, California

在Michael Glassow博士的监督下，H.B.Thakar将在加利福尼亚州圣克鲁斯岛的四个史前贝类栖息地进行考古发掘，并对结果进行分析。这些遗址保存着史前丘玛什人的遗骸，他们在与欧洲人接触的时候占领了北海峡群岛和加利福尼亚州的中央海岸。四个同时代的中期遗址位于同一分水岭，但处于不同的微环境中，距离海岸不同，海拔不同。在加利福尼亚州沿海圣巴巴拉海峡地区人口急剧增长和文化迅速发展之前的一段时间里，狩猎-采集者断断续续地占据了每一个地点。研究人口增长和社会复杂性之间的动态相互关系具有重要意义，原因有很多。世界各地的研究表明，在人类历史的大部分时间里，人们一直生活在相对平等的小群体中，他们经常迁徙，以减轻季节和空间资源的变化。关于狩猎采集人口如何降低获取基本食物资源的风险的研究提供了对现代人口如何提高可持续性和粮食安全的洞察。了解减少风险与人口的显著增长如何结合在营养良好的现代人口中见证的人口繁荣。此外，阐明人口增长和社会复杂性之间的因果关系和时间关系，将有助于阐明现代人口增长如何与当代社会明显的快速文化发展相互作用。塔卡尔将恢复并分析一些数据，这些数据表明圣克鲁斯岛古代居民依赖哪些食物资源，这些人如何应对环境引起的变化，以及随着时间的推移，降低风险的策略如何随着人口增长和社会变化而发生变化。具体地说，她提出--并将评估证据--史前岛屿居民可能采用的两种提高粮食稳定性的经济战略：多种粮食资源的多样化开采或少数几种关键资源的专业化开采。除了它的学术价值，这个项目还将为本科生、研究生和现代丘马什社区的成员带来许多教育和拓展机会。学生助理将参与该项目的所有阶段，从挖掘到实验室分析。这个机会将为学生提供直接参与考古的机会，并获得广泛的实用技能，从遗址测绘到漂浮到鉴定动植物遗骸。面向小学生的教育推广计划将为年轻一代的丘马什提供考古方面的第一手经验。这些努力将促进考古学家与当地美洲原住民社区之间发展的积极关系的继续。

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Glassow, H.B. Thakar will conduct archaeological excavations at four prehistoric shell midden sites on Santa Cruz Island, California, and analyses of resulting collections. These sites contain the material remains of the prehistoric Chumash who occupied the Northern Channel Islands and the central coast of California at the time of European contact. The four contemporaneous midden sites are located in the same watershed but in distinct microenvironments, at varying distances from the coast and at different elevations. Hunter-gatherers intermittently occupied each of these sites during the time period immediately prior to the dramatic population growth and rapid cultural development in the Santa Barbara Channel Region of coastal California. Research focusing on the dynamic interrelationship of human population growth and social complexity is important for a number of reasons. Studies worldwide indicate that throughout most of human history, people have lived in small, relatively egalitarian groups that moved frequently in order mitigate seasonal and spatial resource variation. The study of how hunter-gatherer populations reduced risk in accessing essential food resources provides insight into how modern populations can increase sustainability and food security. Understanding how risk reduction articulated with significant population growth contextualizes the demographic boom witnessed in well-nourished modern populations. Furthermore, elucidating causal and chronological relationships between human population growth and social complexity will clarify how modern population growth interacts with the rapid cultural development evident in contemporary society. Ms. Thakar will recover and analyze data that indicate what food resources the ancient inhabitants of Santa Cruz Island relied upon, how these people managed environmentally induced variation, and how risk-reducing strategies changed through time in relation to population growth and social change. Specifically, she proposes - and will evaluate evidence for - two economic strategies that prehistoric island inhabitants may have employed to increase food stability: diversification in exploitation of many types of food resources or specialization in exploitation of a few key resources. In addition to its academic merit, this project will bring many educational and outreach opportunities to undergraduate students, graduate students and members of the modern Chumash community. Student assistants will participate in all stages of the project, from excavation through laboratory analysis. This opportunity will provide students the chance to engage directly with archaeology and gain a wide variety of practical skills, from site mapping to flotation to identification of plant/animal remains. Educational outreach programs for grade-school Chumash youth will provide the younger generation of Chumash first-hand experience with archaeology. These efforts will facilitate continuation of the positive relationship that has developed between archaeologists and the Native American community in the local area.