Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Historic Economic Intergroup Interactions

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines how the spread of agriculture and pastoralism impacted the economic and governance practices of hunter-gatherer communities. Previous scholarship has generally described this process in two ways, assuming that hunter-gatherer communities survived through either: 1.) Isolation from farmers and herders across frontier boundaries; or 2.) Symbiosis with neighboring food-producing communities as ritual specialists and producers of wild resources. In the latter scenario, it is assumed that close relationships between these groups often led to the gradual assimilation of hunter-gatherers and the loss of generalized hunting and gathering of diverse resources as a viable way of life as governance and economic systems became more dependent on specialized production. Archaeology is well placed to provide new information about long-term relationships between hunter-gatherers, farmers, and herders in order to address the project’s key questions: What led to the survival of hunting and gathering groups into the present? What role does the use and exchange of natural resources play in the formation of political and economic systems capable of withstanding changing social and environmental conditions? This research is relevant to contemporary challenges, such as the nature of resilient economic systems or concerns about flexible responses to food security. Collaborations with local governmental and educational institutions will promote scientific literacy, increase training opportunities for students and officials, and add tangible value to cultural heritage sites. This project rests on materials recovered through prior fieldwork. These materials offer critical evidence about human interactions over a period when agriculture and pastoralism entered into the region and became dominant. Analytical methods have included systematic surface and subsurface sampling, selective surveys of rockshelters, and excavations at open-air sites and rockshelters. The research will generate high-resolution, informed reconstructions of the region’s history while also contributing to global, comparative studies of hunter-gatherer diversity and history. This project will include radiocarbon dating and chemical analysis of diagnostic artifact assemblages. 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.