Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Tropical Forest Mobility and Subsistence

在亚利桑那州立大学迈克尔·E·史密斯博士的指导下，蒂莫西·丹尼希先生将进行研究，以解决人类学的一个核心问题：当人类社会从觅食过渡到农业时，他们会发生什么变化？农业的起源是人类史前研究中研究最多的话题之一，人们对世界上每个地区第一个独立从事农业的人都有很多了解。然而，人们对农业出现之前占据这些地区的前农业群体知之甚少。这既妨碍了对驯化过程的理解，也妨碍了对伴随驯化过程而来的人类社会变化的理解。通过分析来自中美洲低地玛雅地区三个遗址的石器(石片)的多条证据，该项目将极大地有助于理解人类群体如何从流动的狩猎和采集生活方式转变为专注于食物生产的更久坐的生活方式。该项目还与伯利兹的玛雅后裔社区合作，从而有助于培训和教育在STEM领域代表性不足的族裔群体。Dennehy将研究热带森林觅食者如何随着时间的推移改变他们的移动策略，以应对他们自己通过操纵森林资源而改变的环境。这里的术语“流动战略”指的是一个群体在给定年份内进行的流动次数。在光谱的一端，住宅移动性战略需要许多小动作，整个团队每隔几天就会建立一个新营地。另一方面，后勤流动战略需要较少的居住搬迁，但需要更多面向任务的(即后勤)小搬迁，即专门的采集者小组进行长途旅行，将重要资源带回中央营地。单纯依赖野生资源的现代热带森林群体倾向于实行前一种策略；其他更广泛地操纵环境和培育资源的现代热带森林群体倾向于实行后一种策略。这两种流动战略会影响可用于石材工具生产的原材料数量；反过来，原材料的可获得性又会影响几种岩屑特征，从而使该项目的岩屑分析成为间接评估流动战略的唯一途径之一。这些岩石掩体是本研究的重点，包含了公元前8000-900年的沉积，涵盖了古印度晚期/早期古生代过渡到晚期古生代/中古生代过渡期，这一记录的时间深度和完整性在玛雅世界是无与伦比的。这一记录的一端是驯化之前的早期狩猎采集社会，另一端是完全农业的玛雅人群体；因此，它将提供证据，证明在从觅食到农业的过渡过程中使用了各种生存战略。通过研究这段漫长的时间段和三个不同地点的流动性和生存能力，这项研究为改变中美洲觅食社会提供了一个独特的时空视角。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith of Arizona State University, Mr. Timothy Dennehy, will conduct research to address a central anthropological question: how do human societies change as they transition from foraging to agriculture? The origin of agriculture is one of the most heavily researched topics in the study of human prehistory, and much is known about the first people to independently adopt farming in each area of the world. Yet comparatively little is known about the pre-agricultural groups that occupied these same landscapes before farming arose. This hampers understanding of both domestication processes as well as the changes to human society that accompanied them. By analyzing multiple lines of evidence derived from the stone artifacts (lithics) from three sites in the Lowland Maya region of Mesoamerica, this project will contribute greatly to understanding of how human groups transition from a mobile hunting and gathering lifestyle to a more sedentary one focused on food production. This project also works cooperatively with descendant Maya communities in Belize, thus contributing to the training and education of an ethnic group underrepresented in the STEM fields.Mr. Dennehy will examine how tropical forest foragers changed their mobility strategies over time in response to an environment that they themselves were altering through their manipulation of forest resources. The term "mobility strategy" here refers to the number of moves made by a group in a given year. On one end of the spectrum, a Residential Mobility Strategy entails many small moves in which the entire group sets up a new camp every few days. On the other end, a Logistical Mobility Strategy entails fewer residential moves but a greater number of small task-oriented (i.e. logistical) moves, wherein specialized groups of foragers undertake long-range trips to bring vital resources back to a central camp. Modern-day tropical forest groups that rely solely on wild resources tend to practice the former strategy; other modern-day groups who more extensively manipulate their environments and cultivate resources tend practice the latter. These two mobility strategies affect the amount of raw material available for stone tool production; in turn, raw material availability impacts several lithic traits, making this project's lithic analysis one of the only ways to indirectly assess mobility strategies. The rockshelters that are the focus of this study contain deposits that date from 8000-900 B.C., and cover the late Paleoindian/Early Archaic transition through the Late Archaic/Middle Preclassic transition, a record whose time-depth and completeness is unparalleled in the Maya world. This record is anchored at one end by the early hunter-gatherer societies who preceded domestication, and on the other by fully agricultural Maya groups; thus, it will provide evidence of the full spectrum of subsistence strategies utilized during the transition from foraging to agriculture. By examining mobility and subsistence throughout this long time period and at three different locations, this study offers a unique spatio-temporal perspective on changing Mesoamerican foraging societies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.