Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Ecological Adaptation in a Long Term Context

The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees, Orlando FL

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation project examines the animal management practices of a past island society of the past. Specifically, the project explores the cultural mechanisms of transportation and management of the hutia rodent (genus Geocapromys) in a late prehistoric period. Archaeology exists to discover the ancient lifeways and cultural practices of past societies, and to document incompletely understood historic and prehistoric patterns. In this context, this research explores the cultural aspects of animal resource management within 13th-16th century subsistence strategies and illuminates the potentially complexity of indigenous animal husbandry practices throughout the region. The unique array of analytical methodologies combined in this project, once integrated with culturally appropriate historical and modern sources, serves to explain the evolution and complexity of animal management in pre-European society. This interdisciplinary dataset produces new insights into past human behavior for the scientific community and general public, and concomitantly develops a more holistic account of their cultural heritage to contemporary descendants. It also generates multi-disciplinary STEM training opportunities for undergraduate students, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups, including those to which the doctoral student awardee herself belongs. This project investigates hutia management practices before European arrival. Hutia skeletal remains are found at many regional archaeological sites, including those of species which are not endemic to the island upon which they were recovered. This indicates a practice of transportation of hutia beyond their native location and suggests that a culture of animal management was well established. Recently, the researchers have recovered nearly two thousand hutia bones from the study site. This number far exceeds the total recovered from all other sites combined and presents an unprecedented opportunity to document the uniquely local aspects of hutia management. Faunal samples are submitted to a multivariate analysis. ZooMS DNA species identification serves to reconstruct hutia origins and transportation patterns, isotope ratio analysis to document their biological and dietary life history, and AMS radiocarbon dating to develop a timeline for the evolution of animal management activity. 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.