Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Animal Management and the Development of Social complexity

本博士论文项目将研究人类与动物的互动在早期城市化和国家发展中的作用和影响。尽管人与动物的关系对城市社会和早期国家的发展产生了重大影响，但与其他经济领域相比，动物经济的研究相对不足，而且往往过于简单化。在这个项目中，研究人员调查了促进世界上第一个城市和帝国社会发展的人与动物相互作用的类型。结合严谨的实证分析和创新的理论框架，本项目扩展了城市化和政治经济权力的传统模型。研究人员运用一个强调城市和国家社会异质性的创新理论框架，通过强调由不同社区特定需求导致的多种共存的动物管理系统的存在，承认了早期城市中不同社区的代理作用。这种“低权力”的城市动物经济研究方法使传统的自上而下的叙事复杂化，使国家去中心化，并广泛适用于世界多个地区的城市和帝国景观研究。此外，该项目本身促进了美国学术机构与多个国际合作者之间的国际合作和学术联系。此外，还将为参与发掘工作的考古学学生提供动物考古学培训，以促进所需的方法专业化发展。在这个项目中，研究人员调查了复杂的农牧项目和地理上广泛的经济网络，这些网络在早期城市和国家社会中管理着人类与动物的互动。该项目提供了对满足早期城市社区和机构特定需求的经济网络的新理解，包括生存、工业和意识形态驱动的动物供应。研究人员将通过对考古动物骨骼的有针对性的分析来研究管理这些人与动物相互作用的系统。具体来说，研究人员问道，动物经济是如何构建的，人与动物的关系是如何影响城市和国家发展的？研究人员将结合动物考古学（即考古动物骨骼的研究）、同位素分析（即考古动物骨骼和牙齿的化学分析）以及历史和图像比较，研究1)微观（如家庭）和宏观（如城市地区）的专业化动物经济；2)动物供应的地理尺度；3)从一个独立王国到帝国首都的城市经济发展。该项目采用创新的“低功率”城市动物经济模型，突出了多个共存的网络，旨在满足城市景观中不同社区和机构的特定需求，为研究城市经济和维护城市和帝国社会提供了一个新的框架。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。

This doctoral dissertation project will investigate the roles and impacts of human-animal interactions on early urbanization and state development. Despite the significant impact of human-animal relationships on the development of urban societies and early states, animal economies have been comparatively understudied, and often oversimplified, compared to other economic spheres. Within this project, researchers investigate the types of human-animal interactions that facilitated the development of one of the world’s first urban and imperial societies. Combining rigorous empirical analyses and an innovative theoretical framework, this project expands upon traditional models of urbanization and political and economic power. Applying an innovative theoretical framework that emphasizes heterogeneity in urban and state societies, researchers acknowledge the agency of diverse communities within early cities by highlighting the existence of multiple co-existing systems of animal management resulting from diverse community-specific needs. This “low power” approach to urban animal economy complicates traditional top-down narratives, de-centers the state, and is widely applicable to the study of urban and imperials landscapes in multiple regions of the world. Additionally, the project itself promotes international cooperation and scholarly connections between academic institutions in the United States and multiple international collaborators. Zooarchaeological training will also be provided to archaeology students participating in the excavation, facilitating the development of a methodological specialization that is in demand.Within this project, researchers investigate the complex agropastoral programs and geographically expansive economic networks that managed human-animal interactions in early urban and state societies. The project provides a new understanding of the economic networks that met the specific needs of early urban communities and institutions, including subsistence, industry, and ideologically motivated animal provisioning. Researchers will investigate the systems that managed these human-animal interactions through the targeted analysis of archaeological animal bones. Specifically, researchers ask, how were animal economies structured and how did human-animal relationships impact urban and state development? Using a combination of zooarchaeology (i.e., the study of archaeological animal bones), isotope analysis (i.e., the chemical analysis of archaeological animal bones and teeth), and historical and iconographic comparison, researchers will investigate 1) specialized animal economies on a micro- (e.g., households) and macroscale (e.g., city districts), 2) the geographic scale of animal provisioning, and 3) the development of the city’s economies from an independent kingdom into the imperial capital. Framed using an innovative “low power” model of urban animal economy, highlighting multiple co-existing networks designed to meet the specific needs of diverse communities and institutions within the urban landscape, this project provides a novel framework to the study of urban economies and the maintenance of urban and imperial societies.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.