Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Social Input to Scarce Resource Distribution

博士论文改进奖：社会投入对稀缺资源分配

• 批准号: 1938142
• 负责人: Jason Yaeger
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-11-01 至 2021-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1938142&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Social

Dr. Jason Yaeger and Mr. Sebastian Salgado-Flores, of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), will examine the impact of social practices and ritual behavior on Postclassic Maya harvesting and management of firewood. Because wood was the primary fuel for cooking food in pre-historic Mesoamerican societies, firewood harvesting put significant strain on the forests around ancient settlements. The absence of beasts of burden limited harvesting to relatively short distances, and the preferred fuelwood trees grow slowly and were likely unable to meet the needs of a growing population. Thus, this research studies the wood charcoal from Postclassic Maya sites to determine whether their access to higher quality firewood declined over time, or whether the sites' inhabitants were able to overcome the challenges mentioned above and sustainably harvest preferred woods. The research will compare the taxa of firewood used in high-status residences, low-status residences, and public feasting events, in order to understand whether the strategies employed by elites to improve or maintain their social position included greater consumption of higher-quality wood fuels. This project will involve collaboration with archaeologists at several universities in the United States and Mexico, the Comision Nacional de areas Naturales Protegidas in Mexico, and the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This research will also refine archaeometric methods for estimating the diameter of a tree or branch from a charcoal fragment and will contribute to the training of a minority doctoral student in archaeobotanical methods and the use of a scanning election microscope.Over the last several decades, research in anthracology (the study of charcoal recovered from archaeological sites) has become increasingly relevant to understanding of human-environment dynamics and how societies succeed or fail to achieve long-term resource security. The field's understanding of human fuelwood collection is currently based on a model guided by the "Principle of Least Effort," which expects wood gatherers to optimize the amount of energy gained in each harvest. Since the difference in heat release between higher and lower quality fuelwoods is marginal compared to the heavy labor cost of harvesting and transporting wood, this model assumes that ancient harvesters prioritized convenience and were relatively indiscriminating about which species they harvested. While this model appears to adequately explain species distribution of charcoal assemblages in some archaeological cases, it does not fully explain assemblages that are dominated by a few types of wood or differences in the species composition of assemblages deposited contemporaneously at the same archaeological site. It also assumes that politics and social organization played little role in the way that cultures manage and consume fuelwood. Thus, this research will test the Principle of Least Effort model alongside an alternative model of firewood procurement grounded in Political Ecology and the social dynamics in Postclassic Maya communities. This latter model hypothesizes that social elites in those communities found ways to preserve their access to preferred wood types. This model predicts that the charcoal assemblages produced by elite activity (particularly those produced by public events like feasting) will be more likely to contain preferred species than assemblages produced by non-elite households.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.

德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（UTSA）的杰森·耶格（Jason Yaeger）博士和塞巴斯蒂安·萨尔加多·弗洛雷斯（Sebastian Salgado-Flores）将研究社会实践和仪式行为对柴火后的玛雅收获和柴火的管理的影响。 由于木材是史前中美洲社会中烹饪食物的主要燃料，因此柴火的收获给古老定居点周围的森林带来了巨大压力。 缺乏负担的野兽将收获的收割限制在相对较短的距离上，而首选的燃油厂树木生长缓慢，可能无法满足人口增长的需求。因此，这项研究研究了从后玛雅后地点进行的木木炭，以确定它们获得更高质量的柴火的使用是否随着时间的推移而下降，或者这些地点的居民是否能够克服上述挑战并可持续地收获优先的木材。这项研究将比较高地位住宅，低地位住宅和公共盛宴活动的柴火的分类，以了解精英改善或维持其社交地位的策略是否包括更大的高质量木材燃料消费。 该项目将涉及与美国和墨西哥几所大学的考古学家，墨西哥的Nationals de Aciention de Aciention de Aciention de Acienation de Aciparional protegidas，以及得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥大学的Kleberg高级显微镜中心。这项研究还将完善考古学方法，以估算木炭碎片的树或分支的直径，并将有助于培训少数族裔博士生中的考古学方法和扫描选举显微镜的使用。以及过去几十年的扫描选举显微镜。人类学研究中的研究已经越来越多地从考古学恢复到了木炭的研究 - 已经对木炭的研究变得越来越多）。社会成功或无法实现长期资源安全。该领域对人类菲尔伍德收藏的理解目前是基于以“最少努力原则”为指导的模型，该模型希望木材收集者优化每次收获中获得的能量量。由于与收割和运输木材的劳动力繁重相比，较高质量和较低的燃料厂之间的热量释放差异很小，因此该模型假设古代收割机优先考虑方便，并且对它们收获的物种的差异相对不利。尽管该模型似乎可以充分解释在某些考古案例中木炭组合的物种分布，但它并没有完全解释由几种类型的木材或在同一考古遗址同时沉积的组合物种组成中占主导地位的组合。 它还假设政治和社会组织在文化管理和消费菲尔伍德的方式中发挥了很少的作用。因此，这项研究将测试最少努力模型的原则，以及以政治生态学和后类型玛雅社区的社会动态为基础的柴火采购模型。 后一种模型假设，这些社区中的社会精英找到了保持其偏爱木材类型的方法。该模型预测，与非精英家庭生产的木炭集合（尤其是由公共事件产生的木炭组合（尤其是那些由公众活动产生的木炭）比非精英家庭生产的组合更有可能包含首选物种。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过使用该基金会的智力功能和广泛的影响来评估Criteria的智力功能和广泛的criteria，并被认为是值得的。