Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Pastoral Adaptation in Environmental Context

该项目的目标是调查牧民对过去长期干旱和社会政治变化的适应策略。牧民的民族志叙述强调了具有文化特殊性的传统知识体系，该体系将动物饮食、流动性和环境因素纳入其中，从而影响放牧实践和资源管理战略的决策。考古数据、民族志文献和动物遗骸的生物地球化学分析可以提供对缓解策略的见解，这些策略具有潜在的应用价值，可以为当代牧民提供生态知识。该项目利用考古遗迹来比较不同生态和海拔环境下骆驼的饮食和活动模式，以解释生态和社会条件如何影响人-动物-环境的相互作用。该项目旨在为本科生提供稳定同位素分析的培训机会，稳定同位素分析已成为考古研究的主要工具。为了研究骆驼放牧方式的性质和变异性，本项目评估了放牧策略的时空变异性，包括放牧、饲料和流动性。它将通过对两个游牧定居点的骆驼遗骸进行稳定同位素分析，研究骆驼放牧策略的群落间和群落内变异。这两个研究地点跨越了一个以气候和环境变化、冲突增加和政治分裂为特征的时期。对这两处居民点的骆驼遗骸进行碳、氮和氧同位素分析，将有助于了解当地和区域尺度上放牧活动的可变性。通过对骆驼骨骼和牙齿样本的多同位素分析，将用于回答以下涉及饮食和季节运动的直接问题。考察骆驼放牧策略的形式及其可变性，可以深入了解过去对区域贸易网络、迁徙和冲突变化的局部反应。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 project is to investigate the adaptive strategies of pastoralists in response to long-term drought and sociopolitical changes in the past. Ethnographic accounts of pastoralists highlight culturally specific traditional knowledge systems that incorporate animal diet and mobility and environmental factors to shape decision-making in herding practices and resource management strategies. Archaeological data, ethnographic literature, and biogeochemical analyses of animal remains can provide insights into mitigation strategies that have potential applications for informing the ecological knowledge of contemporary herders. This project employs archaeological remains to compare camelid dietary and mobility patterns across different ecological and altitudinal settings to explain how ecological and social conditions shape human-animal-environmental interactions. This project aims to provide opportunities to train undergraduate students in stable isotope analysis, a tool that has become a staple in archaeological research. To examine the nature and variability of camelid herding practices, this project assesses the temporal and spatial variability of herding strategies including pasturing, foddering, and mobility. It will examine inter- and intra-community variability in camelid herding strategies through stable isotope analysis of camelid remains from two pastoral settlements. The two study sites span a period characterized by changes in climate and environment, increasing conflict and political fragmentation. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope analyses of camelid remains from residential compounds at both sites will provide insights into the variability of herding practices at the local and regional scale. Using multi-isotopic analyses of camelid bone and teeth samples, will be used to answer the following directed questions involving diet and seasonal movement. Examining forms of camelid herding strategies and their variability presents insights into localized responses to changes in regional trade networks, migration, and conflict in the past.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.