Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Agricultural Labor Organizations and Management

在这篇博士论文研究项目中，研究人员将采用多学科的方法来研究多时期现场组织中的小米种植和食物准备策略。通过结合古民族植物学和同位素研究，该团队试图了解生存策略和社会关系之间的相互作用的动态，在现场和在多个地方的家庭环境。研究问题是双重的。小米的收成是在家庭内部还是家庭之间分享，还是两者兼而有之？耕作方式是在家庭一级、社区一级还是两者结合决定的？在回答这些问题时，该项目与更广泛的人类学问题相联系，即饮食习惯和食品生产的道德和社会性质。虽然大部分关于食物社会用途的专题讨论都借鉴了当代和历史的例子，但本研究探讨了考古背景下日常食物性能的维度。为了检验关于小米生产和消费的假设，研究小组将采用两种主要方法：（a）大型化石作物加工分析;（B）对植物遗骸进行稳定同位素分析。这些测量建立在近年来样品制备和方法改进的重大改进以及它们在一系列明显不同的环境中在考古学背景中的成功应用的基础上。该项目将在全球范围内扩大对区域耕作做法的理解。该项目旨在提高人们对小米过去、现在和未来效用的认识，了解这种作物的初级生产者及其社会的性质，并在全球范围内证明他们在人类农业系统更广泛轨迹中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this doctoral dissertation research project researchers will adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate millet cultivation and food preparation strategies during a multi-period site organization. By combining paleoethnobotanical and isotopic studies, the team seeks to understand the dynamic of interplay between subsistence strategies and social relations in the field and in the domestic context at multiple localities. The research question is twofold. Was the millet harvest shared within or between households, or both? Were farming practices determined on the household level, the communal level, or a combination of the two? In answering these questions, the project connects with broader anthropological issues, namely, the moral and social nature of food habits and food production. While much of the thematic discussion on the social use of food draws on contemporary and historical examples, this study examines the dimension of daily food performance in archaeological contexts. In order to test hypotheses about millet production and consumption, the research team will employ two principal methods: (a) macrofossil crop processing analysis; and (b) stable isotopic analysis performed on plant remains. These measurements build on significant improvements in sample preparation and methodological refinements in recent years, and their successful applications in archaeological contexts in a range of markedly different environments. The project will expand the understanding of regional farming practices in a global context. This project aims to raise awareness of the past, present and future utility of millet, to understand the nature of primary producers of this crop and their societies, and to situate their role in the broader trajectory of human agricultural systems on a global scale.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.