Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Broad Scale Integration Of Agricultural Production

本博士论文研究项目的目的是利用考古学和古民族植物学方法来调查史前时期大规模的地缘政治变化是否影响了当地的食物方式。该合作项目将研究区域市场中心和相关基础设施的发展对社区农业实践和粮食安全的影响。这是理解生活必需品政治经济学的重要一步。小社区的居民是如何在靠近市场中心和相邻的纪念性堤道的建筑中穿行的？家庭粮食安全战略能提供哪些信息，说明人们对过去粮食系统的整合和依赖程度？古民族植物学是对考古背景下的古代植物遗迹的研究，它提供了推断家庭和活动区域一级模式所需的高分辨率数据，从而可以更好地了解地方和区域现象之间的相互作用。除了粮食安全考古研究的应用层面外，古代食物方式也与当前遗产和身份的讨论有关。除了培养一名博士生外，这项研究还将提供机会与当地社区成员交流有关农业、食物方式和古民族植物学的想法。研究将集中在古典晚期建造的纪念性堤道沿线的一个地点。该研究提出的问题是，当地家庭经济是否融入了不断发展的区域市场经济，如果是，这对粮食安全有何影响？合作项目将从农业和家庭空间进行挖掘和收集古民族植物学样本，以了解粮食生产和消费中植物物种多样性的模式，以及资源获取。这些模式中反映的定量和定性数据将阐明堤道是否成为获得新食物资源的途径，或者，反过来，破坏了当地对食物选择的控制。更广泛地说，该项目将调查当地对区域粮食系统的参与，以及基础设施项目如何调节这种参与。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The goal of this doctoral dissertation research project is to use archaeological and paleoethnobotanical methods to investigate whether grand-scale geopolitical changes influenced local foodways during prehistory. The co-PI will study the effects of the growth of a regional market center and associated infrastructure on community agricultural practice and food security. This is an important step toward understanding political economies of subsistence goods. How did residents of small communities navigate their proximity to a market center and the construction of an adjacent monumental causeway? What can household food security strategies inform about the level of integration and dependence people experienced in food systems of the past? Paleoethnobotany, the study of ancient plant remains from archaeological contexts, provides a high resolution of data necessary to deduce household- and activity area-level patterns, allowing for greater understanding of interactions between local and regional phenomena. Ancient foodways are also relevant to discussions of heritage and identity in the present, in addition to applied dimensions of archaeological research on food security. In addition to training a doctoral student, the research will provide opportunities to exchange ideas with local community members about agriculture, foodways, and paleoethnobotany.The research will be centered at a site along a monumental causeway that was built during the Late Classic period. The research asks, did the local household economy become embedded in the growing regional market economy, and if so, how did this affect food security? The co-PI will conduct excavations and collect paleoethnobotanical samples from agricultural and household spaces in order to understand patterns of plant species diversity in food production and consumption through time, in addition to resource access. Quantitative and qualitative data reflected in these patterns will elucidate whether the causeway became an avenue of access to new food resources, or, alternatively, undermined local control over food choice. More broadly the project will investigate local involvement in regional food systems, and how this was mediated by infrastructural projects.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.