Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Process of Faunal Domestication

在这个博士论文项目中，研究人员将考察几个考古遗址对鸟类的管理。在这些情况下，鸟类被用于不同的目的，包括作为食物、羽毛、友谊、美丽和歌唱的来源。虽然鸟类很少被驯养，但它们经常被喂养和安置在人类住区及其周围。该项目的目标是确定鸟类生物学和人类社会组织如何共同影响人与鸟的互动，并利用这些信息来了解鸟类被圈养的时间和原因。圈养鸟类代表着野生和家养之间的一个未被充分研究的灰色地带--有时被称为低强度管理。目前，有关过去使用圈养动物的信息主要来自对古代民族国家的研究。这个项目将提供管理鸟类在复杂的非国家社会中的作用的详细信息。它将扩大对圈养动物在过去所扮演的角色的理解，并探索特定的鸟类属性和社会结构在塑造动物管理决策中所起的作用。此外，通过提高对过去动物管理的具体形式的理解，这项研究将对人类学研究的更广泛领域做出重要贡献，包括驯化过程、人类和非人类机构以及人与动物关系的可变性质。最后，利用现有的收藏品来解决新的问题尊重了考古记录的有限性质和保存它的必要性。研究生将对两个考古遗址的鸟类骨骼进行博士论文研究。分析将集中于骨骼部分、完整性、修饰、骨骼病理、年龄和性别的详细记录。这些数据将与档案和鸟类学研究的结果结合起来，用于重建这些地点鸟类使用和管理的细节，解决以下问题：1)一个鸟类物种的生物学适宜性是否与它过去是如何获得或保存的有关？2)人类控制下的鸟类是否被用于与野生捕获的个体不同的目的？该奖项反映了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。

In this doctoral dissertation project researchers will examine management of birds at several archaeological sites. In these instances birds were used for diverse purposes, including as sources of food, feathers, companionship, beauty, and song. And although birds were rarely domesticated, they were often fed and housed in and around human settlements. The goal of this project is to establish how bird biology and human social organization together influenced human-bird interactions and to use this information to understand when and why birds were kept in captivity. Captive birds represent an understudied, gray area in between wild and domestic—sometimes referred to as low-intensity management. Currently information about the use of captive animals in the past comes largely from studies of ancient nation-states. This project will provide details on the role of managed birds in complex, non-state societies. It will broaden understanding of the role of captive animals in the past and explore the role specific avian attributes and societal structure play in shaping animal management decisions. Further, by improving understanding of specific forms of past animal management, the research will make an important contribution to broader areas of anthropological inquiry including domestication processes, human and non-human agency, and the variable nature of human-animal relationships. Finally, the use of existing collections to address new questions respects the finite nature of the archaeological record and the need to conserve it.The dissertation student will conduct her doctoral dissertation research on bird bones from two archaeological sites. Analysis will focus on detailed recording of skeletal portion, completeness, modifications, skeletal pathologies, age, and sex. These data will be combined with the results of archival and ornithological research and used to reconstruct details of bird use and management at these sites, addressing the following questions: 1) Does a bird species’ biological suitability for human management relate to how it was obtained or kept in the past? 2) Are the birds under human control used for different purposes than wild caught individuals?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.