Cultural Accommodation And Change In The North Carolina Piedmont

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to provide a new understanding of human health and adaptation on the Atlantic coast during the early Colonial period, one of the most dramatic and dynamic periods of cultural change and interaction in the history of North America. Although the situation in the North Carolina coastal region has received the most scholarly attention, the impacts of European colonization on the indigenous populations and environments of the heartland (the Piedmont region) are poorly documented by historical sources. As a result, archaeological evidence provides a unique means to uncover the unwritten histories of the indigenous peoples of North Carolina and document their experience of, and participation in, the dramatic events and social disruptions that unfolded during the early colonial period. Taking advantage of the unique historical and archaeological resources of this region, systematically collected by the UNC-Chapel Hill Research Laboratories in Archaeology for more than a half century, the researchers will examine how indigenous populations were impacted by the early colonial process. They will document changes in diet and resource selection and reconstruct how the changes associated with colonization impacted economy, diet, mobility, and health. All previous discussions of subsistence in the Piedmont have focused on identifying what was eaten and how it was obtained and distributed, but not on how shifts in subsistence relate to human nutrition and health. The data collected on this project have direct relevance in the modern world. They provide a new understanding of the history of North Carolina's peoples, resources, and land use strategies. They also document indigenous responses to the social, political, environmental and biological stresses of colonial processes, which present a means to assess alternative sustainable food programs in the face of poverty and food insecurity on local and global scales. Moreover, under the direction of collaborating principal investigators, graduate and undergraduate students will play a major role in data collection, management, and analysis, thereby gaining valuable experience in laboratory work, research design, and publication. The combination of plant, animal, ethnohistoric, and human biological data included in this project make valuable contributions to understanding how flexible human behavior facilitates changes in food availability and choice. Few other studies have incorporated all of these kinds of data sets at the onset. Materials from archaeological sites dating between AD 1200 and AD 1720 will be used to examine trends in food choice and procurement within communities through time, as well as to assess variability in resource scheduling, diversity, hunting, and cropping strategies between communities. Are there changes in plant and animal use between the late prehistoric and early colonial periods? Are some animals more desirable for European commodity markets? Do patterns of health and nutrition indicate shifts in diet between the late prehistoric and early colonial periods? We predict that continued emphasis on mixed domestic and wild dietary resources helped buffer the subsistence stress of colonization, while subtle shifts in the way that they were utilized reflect contingent responses in the face of colonization.