2001 — 2005 |
Schmitt, Dave Lupo, Karen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Archaeological Implications of Bofi Foraging @ Washington State University
Meat-sharing with close kin and unrelated adults is believed to be one of the most significant dietary changes to occur in the course of human evolution. Despite its importance there is no consensus on when, why or how sharing emerged among ancestral hominids. The problem lies not only in our inability to confidently identify different sharing behaviors from the archaeological record, but the lack of a theoretical framework for understanding how and why sharing operates. With National Science Foundation support Dr. Karen Lupo and a team of researchers will conduct two seasons of ethnoarchaeological research on meat-sharing among Bofi foragers. The Bofi occupy lush forested regions of the Ngotto Forest Reserve in the Central African Republic and procure most of their food by hunting and gathering. The research is guided by a larger theoretical context which views sharing among family and between unrelated adults as fulfilling very different goals. Provisioning, or sharing among family members, enhances the survivability of close kin. But sharing with unrelated adults is aimed at enhancing a hunters social status. The theory predicts that hunters will vary their choice of prey depending upon their overall goal (provisioning or status enhancement). The research team will use direct observations, informant interviews and animal bone collections from different hunters and their households to test salient aspects of this theory. These techniques will allow the team to collect quantitative data on what hunters procure and how much of it is shared and consumed by close family and unrelated adults. Data collected with these techniques will be used to investigate the following research questions: 1) Does meat-sharing vary predictably by prey type? If so, what characteristics predict which prey will be shared with family and unrelated adults? 2) Do hunters vary their pursuit effort of different types of prey depending on their overall goal (provision family or enhance status)? 3) What is the material link between different sharing behaviors and the archaeological record?
The importance of this research is far-reaching. This project will be the first systematic and quantitative study of prey choice and meat-sharing ever conducted among contemporary foragers. This research will also examine and identify the links between different sharing strategies, as reflected by animal bones, and the material record. This latter point is particularly important for archaeological investigations. The project combines ethnoarchaeological research with a theoretical framework that will help explain how and why sharing operates in a contemporary setting. By extension, it will provide important new insights into the evolution of sharing among ancestral hominids. Finally, very little is known about the Bofi foragers. Thus far, only one other study has ever been conducted in this area. This research will expand current understanding of contemporary forager ecology.
|
0.915 |
2006 — 2013 |
Alfaro, Michael Webster, Michael Lupo, Karen Kohler, Timothy Schwabl, Hubert (co-PI) [⬀] Schwabl, Hubert (co-PI) [⬀] Smith, Eric |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Igert: Model-Based Approaches to Biological and Cultural Evolution @ Washington State University
This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award establishes a novel Ph.D. training program designed to bridge the gap between anthropology and biology. The program provides students in both fields a common curriculum that emphasizes evolutionary processes of adaptation and diversification in genetic, behavioral, and cultural domains. Students will become adept in state-of-the-art methods including computational modeling, game theory and phylogenetic analysis that are applicable to study of evolutionary processes across these domains. Students enter the program through the Department of Anthropology or the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University, Pullman, or through the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle. They spend at least one term taking courses or pursuing research at the sister institution, and form research teams across these universities and disciplines, allowing them to draw on relevant expertise in either sponsoring university. In addition they have the opportunity to pursue research at a domestic partner, the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and at three international partners: the Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, University College London; Le Centre Universitaire de Recherche et de Documentation en Histoire et Archologie, Central African Republic; and the University of Costa Rica. The program aims to educate professionals versed in evolutionary approaches integrating the study of biology and culture, familiar with the most important perspectives and quantitative techniques for studying culture change and the evolution of social behavior in both humans and non-humans. Outreach to area schools and local native American groups is planned to strengthen the teaching of evolution in K-12 schools and to increase the breadth of approaches for understanding evolution. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
|
0.915 |
2009 — 2013 |
Lupo, Karen |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Late Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology in the Central African Rain Forest @ Washington State University
The Central African rain forest is the second largest contiguous tract of rain forest in the world and currently supports a suite of highly diverse biological communities, including a number endemic and endangered animals, as well as local and regional economies and plays an important role in global climates. Renewed efforts to protect and manage these ecosystems depend on accurate reconstructions of the prehistoric ecological trajectory of this region. With the support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Karen Lupo will lead a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research project to build a longitudinal paleoecological record for the northern Central African rain forest spanning the last 4,500 years. This project is a collaborative effort that includes archeologists, anthropologists, ethnoarchaeologists and palynologists from Washington State University (USA), CURDHACA (Centre Universitaire de Recherche et de Documentation en Histoire et Archéologie Centrafricaines), University of Bangui, and the Boganda Museum, Central African Republic. The goal of this research is to lay the groundwork for investigating the timing, nature and cultural developments associated with the transition to food production in the northern Congo Basin. The transition to food production generated one of the earliest significant anthropogenic impacts on rain forest habitats and had far reaching effects (and interactions) on the human populations that occupied the forest. By combining paired archaeological and proxy paleoenvironmental information from fossil pollen and plant remains, the team will reconstruct the historical ecology of the northern Congo Basin.
This research is important because it represents the first historical ecology study in this region. Environmental reconstructions from parts of West Africa suggest that the rain forest boundaries fluctuated and regressed dramatically during an arid period spanning from about 4,500 to 2,000 years ago. This arid period is often identified as a catalyst to the migration of Bantu-speaking farmers from a core area in northwestern Cameroun to other portions of Africa. Thus far, very little research on the historical ecology of the central African rainforest has been conducted. Limited evidence suggests a high degree of regional variation in vegetational response to Late Holocene aridity in the central African rainforest. Furthermore, the timing and nature of the arrival of farmers in this area and the subsequent impacts of horticulture are unknown and controversial. Linguistic evidence suggests that farmers migrated to this area between 2,300 and 2,500 years ago, but sparse archeological evidence support a much later date of arrival.
The collaborative research partnership between scientists and students in the Central African Republic and United States created by this research presents an opportunity to exchange ideas and training. This study will also have broader impacts and practical applications to the management of rain forest communities. Outreach activities associated with this research include educational activities with local communities to promote stewardship and protection of heritage and environmental resources.
|
0.915 |