Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Investigating the Social and Technological Implications of Mass-Capture Fishing

考古研究提供了一个独特的、长期的视角来研究社会、文化、技术和环境之间的动态关系。因此，对海洋适应的考古研究传统上侧重于长期过程，扩大了对资源枯竭等一般趋势的理解，往往掩盖了具体事件的后果。本研究的重点是社会和经济重组的一个特殊案例，以阐明创新在社会和政治变革时期的影响。正如工业化在近代对渔业作业、渔业社区和渔业人口产生了巨大影响一样，前资本主义社会中渔业技术和资源利用的变化与社会、政治和经济重组密切相关。该项目提供了一个难得的机会，将几千年前的考古数据与历史和现代渔业数据联系起来，以便更好地了解促进连续性的因素以及产生突然和持久变化的力量。这项研究的结果将在全球范围内分享，并将为渔业可持续性提供一个深入的视角。参加这项研究的学生将接受考古实验室方法、动物分析和标本管理方面的培训和经验。在尼尔·沃利斯博士的指导下，佛罗里达大学的博士生吉妮莎·马哈尔将调查沿海渔猎采集社会中不断变化的社会、政治和经济环境如何影响生存实践和技术创新。在美国东南部的林地时代，复杂的公民仪式中心的出现表明，以前小规模分散的社会在政治、经济和社会方面进行了重组。这样的发展可能需要完全重组生存实践，以促进这些前所未有的大型聚会。本研究调查了佛罗里达北部海湾沿岸早期林地（公元前500年-公元200年）沿海社区的传统捕鱼活动，以及公元200年之后，复杂的公民仪式中心建成并有人居住后，这些活动如何受到仪式活动加剧的影响。具体而言，本研究询问是否扩大了传统的捕鱼协议，以促进这种聚会以及在公民仪式中心的日常消费，或者是否开发和执行了创新的做法。考古样本将从多个地点进行分析，这些地点的日期在这些中心开始之前，期间和之后。这些考古背景下的鱼骨将被用来评估用于促进这些沿海社区不断变化的需求的技术的类型和规模。鱼类的大小对资源获取、时间和资源可持续性的评估至关重要，因此将使用佛罗里达鱼类和野生动物保护委员会提供的墨西哥湾现代标本生成异速生长公式。该项目还结合了先前进行的研究成果，包括民族志田野调查、实验鱼类捕获和考古物质文化分析。该项目产生的数据不仅有利于该区域内的考古研究，也有利于全世界多学科的长期渔业项目。

Archaeological research provides a unique, long-term perspective on the dynamics among society, culture, technology and environment. Accordingly, archaeological studies of maritime adaptations have traditionally focused on long-term processes, broadening understanding of general trends such as resource depletion, often glossing over the consequences of specific events. This study focuses on a particular case of social and economic reorganization in order to illuminate the impact of innovation during times of punctuated social and political change. Just as industrialization has had a huge impact on fishing operations, fishing communities and fisheries populations in recent times, changes in fishing technology and resource use among pre-capitalist societies were closely tied to social, political, and economic reorganization. This project presents a rare opportunity to connect archaeological data that stretches back millennia to historical and modern day fisheries data in order to better understand the factors that promote continuity and the forces that generate abrupt and lasting change. The results of this research will be shared globally, and will provide a deep-time perspective on fishery sustainability. Student participants in this research will receive training and experience in archaeological laboratory methods, faunal analysis and specimen curation.University of Florida doctoral student Ginessa Mahar, supervised by Dr. Neill Wallis, will investigate how changing social, political, and economic circumstances among coastal fisher-hunter-gatherer societies affected subsistence practices and technological innovation. During the Woodland era of the Southeastern USA, the appearance of complex civic-ceremonial centers indicates political, economic, and social reorganization on the part of formerly small-scale dispersed societies. Such developments likely required a complete reorganization of subsistence practices to facilitate these unprecedented large gatherings. This study investigates the traditional fishing practices of Early Woodland (500 B.C. - A.D. 200) coastal communities along the northern Gulf Coast of Florida and how they were affected by the intensification of ritual practices after A.D. 200, when complex civic-ceremonial centers were constructed and inhabited. Specifically, this study asks if traditional fishing protocols were expanded to facilitate such gatherings as well as daily consumption at civic-ceremonial centers, or if innovative practices were developed and executed. Archaeological samples will be analyzed from multiple sites that date prior to, during, and after the onset of these centers. Fish bones from these archaeological contexts will be used to assess the type and scale of technology used to facilitate the changing needs of these coastal communities. Fish size is critical to the assessment of resource acquisition, timing, and resource sustainability, thus allometric formulae will be generated using modern specimens from the Gulf of Mexico provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. This project also incorporates the results of previously conducted research including ethnographic fieldwork, experimental fish capture, and archaeological material culture analysis. The data generated by this project will benefit not only archaeological studies within the region but also multi-disciplinary, long-term fisheries projects worldwide.