Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Development Of Complex Fishing Technologies

在世界各地的海洋猎人-采集者-渔民中，从强调采集贝类的生存战略转向人们越来越多地捕鱼的战略标志着一个关键的转变，因为它为社会提供了更多的食物，支持了半永久居住，并重组了社会政治组织。以前的学术研究记录了与引入新的捕鱼技术相关的人类饮食和定居的变化。人们不太重视了解导致人们转变战略和开发工具以获取更多海洋资源的情况。这一博士论文项目将调查加州海峡群岛上的土著人民如何适应当地海洋生态系统支持的专门捕鱼战略，以及人们如何创新新技术来瞄准这些资源。通过这样做，他们将解决人类学考古学中的基本问题，如为什么会出现密集的自给自足经济，以及文化创新如何在可变的环境中实现。这项研究是与当地土著利益攸关方合作进行的。成立了土著社区成员咨询委员会，以确保交流透明、研究合乎道德，并为社区在项目不同阶段的投入和参与创造机会。这项研究将利用三个考古遗址现有的、未经分析的博物馆藏品，探讨环境条件如何影响集约化捕鱼做法的出现和捕鱼技术的演变，如单片贝壳鱼钩和缝制木板独木舟。这项研究的重点是加利福尼亚州海峡群岛的土著人口。借鉴进化论，研究人员将根据栖息地适宜性对人类行为和决策进行建模。他们使用潮间带贝类种群密度数据和计算的湿地面积作为栖息地适宜性的衡量标准。研究人员将分析研究地点的所有动物遗骸。此外，他们还将提交与缝制木板独木舟的建造和维护相关的精选文物和原材料样本，以进行地球化学分析。这些数据将确定建造独木舟所需原材料的来源，并为关于远距离交流和强化资源获取在社会政治复杂性发展中的作用的辩论提供宝贵的见解。最后，这项研究将展示在未探索的博物馆收藏品中可获得的极有价值的数据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Among maritime hunter-gatherer-fishers around the world, the adaptation from subsistence strategies that emphasized shellfish collecting towards one which people were increasingly fishing marked a critical transition because it provided more food for society, supported semi-permanent habitation, and restructured sociopolitical organization. Previous scholarship has documented changes in human diet and settlement associated with the introduction of new fishing technologies. Less emphasis has been placed on understanding the circumstances that led people to shift strategies and develop the tools to access a greater number of marine resources. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate how indigenous people on the California Channel Islands adapted specialized fishing strategies that were supported by local marine ecosystems and how people innovated new technologies to target these resources. In doing so, they will address fundamental questions in anthropological archaeology such as why intensive subsistence economies emerge and how cultural innovations materialize in variable environments.This research is in collaboration with local indigenous stakeholders. An Advisory Board of Native community members was created to ensure that communication is transparent, research is ethical and to create opportunities for community input and participation at varying stages of the project. This research will utilize existing, unanalyzed museum collections from three archaeological sites to address how environmental conditions influenced the emergence of intensive fishing practices and the evolution of fishing technologies, such as the single-piece shell fishhook and sewn-plank canoes. The research focuses on indigenous populations from the California Channel Islands. Drawing from evolutionary theory, researchers will model human behavior and decision making based on habitat suitability. They use intertidal shellfish population density data and calculated area of wetlands as measures of habitat suitability. Researchers will analyze all faunal remains from the study sites. Additionally, they will submit select samples of artifacts and raw materials associated with the construction and maintenance of sewn-plank canoes for geochemical analysis. These data will determine the source of raw materials necessary for canoe construction and provide valuable insight to debates regarding the role of long-distance exchange and intensified resource acquisition in the development of sociopolitical complexity. Lastly, this study will demonstrate the tremendously valuable data available in unexplored museum collections.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.