Doctoral Dissertation Research - Long Term Adoption of Agriculture

这个博士论文研究项目的目标是研究在美国西南部驯化的采用。尽管最近在了解史前居住在该地区的相对较大的农业社区以及在此之前的农业狩猎-采集社区方面取得了进展，但对将两者分开的过渡性农业-采集经济却知之甚少。玉米和南瓜最早是什么时候出现的？它们以多快的速度被纳入了觅食经济体？耕作方式的采用如何影响觅食动物的移动模式？这些人采用了什么样的小规模种植策略？像这样的问题不仅对西南部的考古学家很重要，而且对地球仪的研究人员和非专业人士也很重要，他们对人类适应干旱-半干旱环境的各种方式感兴趣。该项目将帮助土地管理局发现和管理偏远荒野地区的文化资源。此外，该项目将使区域利益相关者受益，他们将从了解荒野中存在的各种文化资源及其持续保护中受益。该项目的资源也将用于为两名研究生助理提供挖掘，调查方法和数据管理方面的实践培训。该项目将利用基于人类行为生态学的多标量方法来解决这个问题。该项目将通过两种方式推进有关农业采用的研究：1）通过对相关古代遗址位置及其对农民-采集者流动性和斑块选择的影响的空间分析，以及2）从BLM管理的Fishhooks荒野地区生成次区域古民族植物学数据集。以前在这片荒野中的研究恢复了玉米和南瓜的遗骸;放射性碳测年确定了这个地点是西南部最古老的玉米产地之一，也是唯一证明玉米和南瓜引入西南部的地点，要么是一前一后，要么两者之间只有一个微小的滞后。从大鱼钩荒野地区的考古调查以及在整个荒野的两个干燥洞穴的有限挖掘中获得的数据将被用来回答有关居住和储存地点的位置，这段时间玉米和南瓜种植的普遍性，潜在的田地面积，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。

The goal of this doctoral dissertation research project is to examine the adoption of domesticates in the US Southwest. Despite recent advances in the understanding of the relatively large farming communities that prehistorically inhabited the region and the pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer communities that preceded them, little is known about the transitional farming-foraging economies that separate the two. When did maize and squash first appear and how rapidly were they incorporated in foraging economies? How did the adoption of cultivation practices affect forager mobility patterns? What kind of small-scale cultivation strategies were utilized by these peoples? Questions like these are important not only to archaeologists in the Southwest, but to researchers and nonprofessionals across the globe who are interested in the myriad ways people adapted to life in arid-semiarid environments. The project will aid the Bureau of Land Management in discovering and managing cultural resources in a remote wilderness area. Further, the project will benefit regional stakeholders who will benefit from understanding the kinds of cultural resources present within the wilderness and their continued protection. Resources from this project will also be used to provide two graduate student assistants with valuable hands-on training in excavation, survey methods, and data management.The project will utilize a multi-scalar approach grounded in human behavioral ecology to address the question. This project will advance research regarding the adoption of agriculture in two ways: 1) through the spatial analysis of relevant Archaic site locations and their implications for farmer-forager mobility and patch choice, and 2) the generation of a sub-regional paleoethnobotanical dataset from the BLM-managed Fishhooks Wilderness Area. Previous research within this wilderness recovered maize and squash remains; radiocarbon dating identified this location as one of the oldest maize-bearing sites in the Southwest and the only site to demonstrate that the introduction of maize and squash to the Southwest occurred either in tandem or with only a minor lag between the two. Data derived from archaeological survey of the greater Fishhooks Wilderness area as well as limited excavations at two dry caves throughout the wilderness will be used as a means to answer questions regarding the location of habitation and storage sites, the ubiquity of maize and squash cultivation during this time, potential field areas, and changes in agricultural practice over time.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.