Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.2021979
Yan Liu, Panpan Tan, Junchang Yang, Jian Ma
ABSTRACT Recent discoveries in north-west China and the Central Asian steppes have shed new light on the study of power display and material connections amongst nomadic groups during the development of gold-making technology in Iron Age Eurasia. Bringing together material science and archaeological approaches, this paper presents an interdisciplinary study of serially produced gold artefacts recovered from the elite burials of north-west China, to gain a better understanding of the inventive nature of early gold-making industry. In particular, we find that the technology used to craft the gold appliqués found in the Xigou cemetery (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) in north-west China attested to the use of moulds or matrices for serial production, closely linked to technological practice of the central Asians steppes. We consider the spread of the peculiar technique and iconography as a tangible way to examine technology transfer and cultural interactions. The contextual analysis reveals that the mould-pressing technique, the animal-style gold artefacts, and the burial practice of using prestigious gold as body adornment constitute a shared set of material expressions of the status and power of nomadic elites in north-west China, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. Technological practice, in turn, opens up new research avenues in the field, recalibrating our recognition and understanding the active involvement of material objects in human life and culture.
{"title":"Social agency and prestige technology: serial production of gold appliqués in the early Iron Age north-west China and the Eurasian steppes","authors":"Yan Liu, Panpan Tan, Junchang Yang, Jian Ma","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.2021979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.2021979","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent discoveries in north-west China and the Central Asian steppes have shed new light on the study of power display and material connections amongst nomadic groups during the development of gold-making technology in Iron Age Eurasia. Bringing together material science and archaeological approaches, this paper presents an interdisciplinary study of serially produced gold artefacts recovered from the elite burials of north-west China, to gain a better understanding of the inventive nature of early gold-making industry. In particular, we find that the technology used to craft the gold appliqués found in the Xigou cemetery (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) in north-west China attested to the use of moulds or matrices for serial production, closely linked to technological practice of the central Asians steppes. We consider the spread of the peculiar technique and iconography as a tangible way to examine technology transfer and cultural interactions. The contextual analysis reveals that the mould-pressing technique, the animal-style gold artefacts, and the burial practice of using prestigious gold as body adornment constitute a shared set of material expressions of the status and power of nomadic elites in north-west China, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. Technological practice, in turn, opens up new research avenues in the field, recalibrating our recognition and understanding the active involvement of material objects in human life and culture.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"741 - 761"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43166548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.2014949
C. Costin
ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine the relationship between technological and aesthetic shifts in Andean North Coast prestige ceramics and sociopolitical change by focusing on pottery as a form of information technology in a world without formal writing. To do so, I begin by defining two techno-aesthetic macro-traditions to emphasize the interconnections among technique and visual appearance, semantics and aesthetics. I then demonstrate how these two traditions waxed and waned in complementary fashion for millennia, and I set the shifts in their popularity within their broader sociopolitical contexts. In investigating technological choices and their concomitant visual qualities, I explore the interplay between technological, aesthetic, and sociopolitical transformations, with a focus on the changing role of ceramics as media for communicating ideological narratives of power and authority.
{"title":"Techno-aesthetic ceramic traditions and the effective communication of power on the North Coast of Peru","authors":"C. Costin","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.2014949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.2014949","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine the relationship between technological and aesthetic shifts in Andean North Coast prestige ceramics and sociopolitical change by focusing on pottery as a form of information technology in a world without formal writing. To do so, I begin by defining two techno-aesthetic macro-traditions to emphasize the interconnections among technique and visual appearance, semantics and aesthetics. I then demonstrate how these two traditions waxed and waned in complementary fashion for millennia, and I set the shifts in their popularity within their broader sociopolitical contexts. In investigating technological choices and their concomitant visual qualities, I explore the interplay between technological, aesthetic, and sociopolitical transformations, with a focus on the changing role of ceramics as media for communicating ideological narratives of power and authority.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"881 - 902"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46974371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-07DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1972831
Alexander Aston
Following Gosden and Malafouris, this article explores why process archaeology provides a beneficial framework for understanding the emergent, selforganising dynamics of human existence. To demonstrate the potential of process archaeology for reframing discourses about humanity’s nature, this article examines automotive culture from evolutionary, ecological, developmental, and socio-political perspectives. Automobiles provide a robust example of how forms emerge from and transform flows of energy-matter across multiple dynamic scales. The article concludes with a reflection on symbolism and how American automotive culture can be understood as a form of cult ritual. Archaeology’s obsession with ritual stems from a Cartesian assumption that rituals are arbitrary manifestations of symbolic minds. Process archaeology understands ritual as a means of organising energetic flows of persons and things into stable forms that endure over time. This perspective supports exploring the emergence of symbolic relationships and cultural forms as a developmental entwining of cognitive and ecological processes.
{"title":"You can’t perform the same ritual twice: minds, materials, automobiles, and the emergence of form","authors":"Alexander Aston","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.1972831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1972831","url":null,"abstract":"Following Gosden and Malafouris, this article explores why process archaeology provides a beneficial framework for understanding the emergent, selforganising dynamics of human existence. To demonstrate the potential of process archaeology for reframing discourses about humanity’s nature, this article examines automotive culture from evolutionary, ecological, developmental, and socio-political perspectives. Automobiles provide a robust example of how forms emerge from and transform flows of energy-matter across multiple dynamic scales. The article concludes with a reflection on symbolism and how American automotive culture can be understood as a form of cult ritual. Archaeology’s obsession with ritual stems from a Cartesian assumption that rituals are arbitrary manifestations of symbolic minds. Process archaeology understands ritual as a means of organising energetic flows of persons and things into stable forms that endure over time. This perspective supports exploring the emergence of symbolic relationships and cultural forms as a developmental entwining of cognitive and ecological processes.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47259542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-23DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1963833
O. Harris
In this paper I seek to explore how a particular aspect of process philosophy can offer us new ways of thinking through time in archaeology. In contrast to current archaeological debates, which cou...
{"title":"Archaeology, process and time: beyond history versus memory","authors":"O. Harris","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.1963833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1963833","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I seek to explore how a particular aspect of process philosophy can offer us new ways of thinking through time in archaeology. In contrast to current archaeological debates, which cou...","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49351957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-08DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1997638
Gyles Iannone, Scott Macrae, Talis Talving-Loza, Raiza S. Rivera, Pyiet Phyo Kyaw
ABSTRACT Little is known about the lifeways of the commoner populations that supported the expansive pre-industrial cities of Southeast Asia. Archaeologically driven understandings are constrained by the fact that the architecture and much of the material culture utilized by ordinary citizens were made from perishable materials, and many living floors were also raised above the actual ground surface on piles. The challenges associated with searching for and interpreting these quotidian remains, once they are found, can be mitigated to some degree through the integration of ethnoarchaeological insights. This study outlines the results of detailed ethnoarchaeological investigations within ten traditional Myanmar villages located in proximity to the remains of ‘classical’ Bagan’s walled and moated royal city. We then explore how these findings have helped our excavation team recognize and interpret a range of residential remains associated with the ancient city’s peri-urban support population.
{"title":"Finding the remains of classical Bagan’s peri-urban support population: using ethnoarchaeological data to enhance archaeological excavation and interpretation","authors":"Gyles Iannone, Scott Macrae, Talis Talving-Loza, Raiza S. Rivera, Pyiet Phyo Kyaw","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.1997638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1997638","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Little is known about the lifeways of the commoner populations that supported the expansive pre-industrial cities of Southeast Asia. Archaeologically driven understandings are constrained by the fact that the architecture and much of the material culture utilized by ordinary citizens were made from perishable materials, and many living floors were also raised above the actual ground surface on piles. The challenges associated with searching for and interpreting these quotidian remains, once they are found, can be mitigated to some degree through the integration of ethnoarchaeological insights. This study outlines the results of detailed ethnoarchaeological investigations within ten traditional Myanmar villages located in proximity to the remains of ‘classical’ Bagan’s walled and moated royal city. We then explore how these findings have helped our excavation team recognize and interpret a range of residential remains associated with the ancient city’s peri-urban support population.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"579 - 598"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46452174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-08DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2022.2032312
Piphal Heng
ABSTRACT Southeast Asian archaeological research often emphasizes upland-lowland dynamics in the development of premodern complex societies. This paper tracks upland-lowland dynamics in Pre-Angkorian (6th-8th century CE) Cambodia by focusing on land-use and economy along the Mekong River. Proto-urban settlements emerged throughout the Tonle Sap and Mekong Delta alluvial plains but also appeared at key centers such as Thala Borivat, Sambor, and Wat Phu along the Mekong River’s more narrow corridors. The diversified economy that involved movement of forest resources and food between these tropical upland-lowland ecotones, observed during the colonial period, emerged by the 6th-7th centuries CE and coincided with political consolidations during the Pre-Angkor period. Analysis of this region suggests that non-Khmer (ethnic minority) swidden agricultural groups who now dominate the uplands have premodern roots in the region. Using upland-lowland settings to study tropical habitation, this archaeological study offers a risk-reduction exchange-based model for understanding Cambodia’s premodern Mekong organization.
{"title":"Landscape, upland-lowland, community, and economy of the mekong river (6th-8th century CE): case studies from the Pre-Angkorian centers of Thala Borivat and Sambor","authors":"Piphal Heng","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2022.2032312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2022.2032312","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Southeast Asian archaeological research often emphasizes upland-lowland dynamics in the development of premodern complex societies. This paper tracks upland-lowland dynamics in Pre-Angkorian (6th-8th century CE) Cambodia by focusing on land-use and economy along the Mekong River. Proto-urban settlements emerged throughout the Tonle Sap and Mekong Delta alluvial plains but also appeared at key centers such as Thala Borivat, Sambor, and Wat Phu along the Mekong River’s more narrow corridors. The diversified economy that involved movement of forest resources and food between these tropical upland-lowland ecotones, observed during the colonial period, emerged by the 6th-7th centuries CE and coincided with political consolidations during the Pre-Angkor period. Analysis of this region suggests that non-Khmer (ethnic minority) swidden agricultural groups who now dominate the uplands have premodern roots in the region. Using upland-lowland settings to study tropical habitation, this archaeological study offers a risk-reduction exchange-based model for understanding Cambodia’s premodern Mekong organization.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"643 - 666"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45792309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-08DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1997639
Verónica Zuccarelli Freire, P. Roberts, Ana S. Meléndez, M. Tromp, Marcos. N. Quesada
ABTRACT In this paper we review the growing evidence of anthropogenic landscapespresent in the semi-deciduous neotropical forest biomes of eastern NW Argentina,which have remained relatively neglected in favour of arid to semi-arid western Andean regions. The evidence gathered in de El Alto-Ancasti provides animportant case study where multidisciplinary methodologies have beenapplied to sites that document the emergence and variability in food productionstrategies across the eastern Andean forests and grasslands of NWArgentina. We discuss evidence offarming structures from archaeological surveys, plant management from phy-tolith analysis, and the tempo and nature of settlement from archaeological excavations undertaken at a variety of sites in the El Alto Ancasti mountainrange. We suggest that the communities that inhabited this region during thefirst millennium AD (ca. 1500–1000 BP) established a strategy of ‘overlappingpatchworks’ of food production that were able to contend with considerableseasonal variability. We argue that, through the use of cross-channelling, low river areas, erosion control techniques and the establishment of mesothermal crops,including maize, legumes, and tubers, throughout the region, these societies adopted flexible strategies to adapt to life in a region prone to climatic change
摘要:本文回顾了阿根廷西北部东部半落叶新热带森林生物群落中存在的越来越多的人为景观证据，这些生物群落相对被忽视，有利于干旱至半干旱的西部安第斯地区。在de El Alto-Ancasti收集的证据提供了一个重要的案例研究，其中多学科方法已应用于记录北阿根廷东部安第斯森林和草原粮食生产战略的出现和变化的地点。我们从考古调查中讨论了农业结构的证据，从物质体分析中讨论了植物管理，从El Alto Ancasti山脉的各种遗址中进行的考古发掘中讨论了定居的速度和性质。我们认为，在公元第一个千年(约1500-1000年前)居住在该地区的社区建立了一种“重叠拼凑”的粮食生产策略，能够应对相当大的季节性变化。我们认为，通过在整个地区使用交叉通道、低河区、侵蚀控制技术和建立中温作物，包括玉米、豆类和块茎，这些社会采取了灵活的策略来适应气候变化容易发生的地区的生活
{"title":"Managing environmental diversity in the eastern foothills of the Andes: pre-Columbian agrarian landscapes in the El Alto-Ancasti mountain range","authors":"Verónica Zuccarelli Freire, P. Roberts, Ana S. Meléndez, M. Tromp, Marcos. N. Quesada","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.1997639","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1997639","url":null,"abstract":"ABTRACT In this paper we review the growing evidence of anthropogenic landscapespresent in the semi-deciduous neotropical forest biomes of eastern NW Argentina,which have remained relatively neglected in favour of arid to semi-arid western Andean regions. The evidence gathered in de El Alto-Ancasti provides animportant case study where multidisciplinary methodologies have beenapplied to sites that document the emergence and variability in food productionstrategies across the eastern Andean forests and grasslands of NWArgentina. We discuss evidence offarming structures from archaeological surveys, plant management from phy-tolith analysis, and the tempo and nature of settlement from archaeological excavations undertaken at a variety of sites in the El Alto Ancasti mountainrange. We suggest that the communities that inhabited this region during thefirst millennium AD (ca. 1500–1000 BP) established a strategy of ‘overlappingpatchworks’ of food production that were able to contend with considerableseasonal variability. We argue that, through the use of cross-channelling, low river areas, erosion control techniques and the establishment of mesothermal crops,including maize, legumes, and tubers, throughout the region, these societies adopted flexible strategies to adapt to life in a region prone to climatic change","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"615 - 642"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41587088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-08DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.2062885
Yijie Zhuang, P. Lane
The tropics occupy one third of the earth’s landmass and are home to more than 40% of the global population. They were destinations of many voyages that changed modern human history and the location of many of the greatest scientific discoveries and observations that have profoundly shaped the direction and advancement of scientific research (e.g. Charles Darwin’s Galapagos experiences). They continue to stimulate great public interest – Sir David Attenborough’s popular tropical television documentaries are a great manifestation of this – and research on the tropics continues to shift the boundaries of our scientific quest into the planet’s natural history. The latter includes recent scientific recognition of the importance of carbon storage and sequestration in Africa’s tropical forests and wetlands and how these processes might contribute to further our understanding of global carbon cycles and ecological changes (Lewis et al. 2009). Despite these great scientific achievements, the tropics remain largely remote and often exotic imaginaries in mainstream academic discourse and our understanding of the deep histories of tropical inhabitation and human adaptation is particularly sparse (Mercader 2003), compared to that of the global temperate zones. The gaps in our knowledge of tropical human pasts have also commonly led to the isolation of tropical societies from consideration in broader syntheses, with the lowland American tropics being perhaps best served (e.g. Clasby and Nesbitt 2021; Lippi 2004; Stahl 1995). Although some recent archaeological discoveries have brought the tropics into the spotlight in efforts to establish an inclusive global history (e.g. Bulliet et al. 2014), the archaeology of the tropics is still under-represented despite the recent attempts to highlight the importance of tropical rainforests to understanding both the ‘deep history’ of our species (Scerri et al. 2022) and ‘the Anthropocene’ (Roberts, Hamilton, and Piperno 2021). In academic debates on the fundamental archaeological questions such as the origins of modern humans, agriculture and early states, the voice of tropical archaeology remains limited. One of the technical challenges in the archaeology of tropical inhabitation, as acknowledged by many researchers, is the generally poor preservation of not only palaeoecological evidence but also perishable architectural remains of past lives due to the common (although by no means universal) acid soil conditions and other taphonomic issues (but note also that earthen and stone architecture can be well preserved in some tropical settings). Although the growing application of scientific techniques has started to overturn the wholly negative pictures of what the tropics can offer us to disentangle their complicated histories, the macroscopic perspectives and microscopic observations that are increasingly adopted by scholars remain to be robustly integrated to create more holistic reconstructions of how ancient population
热带地区占地球陆地面积的三分之一，是全球40%以上人口的家园。它们是许多改变现代人类历史的航行的目的地，也是许多伟大的科学发现和观察的地点，这些发现和观察深刻地塑造了科学研究的方向和进步(例如查尔斯·达尔文的加拉帕戈斯群岛经历)。它们继续激发着公众的极大兴趣——大卫·阿滕伯勒爵士广受欢迎的热带电视纪录片就是一个很好的证明——对热带的研究继续将我们科学探索的界限转移到地球的自然历史上。后者包括最近对非洲热带森林和湿地碳储存和封存重要性的科学认识，以及这些过程如何有助于进一步了解全球碳循环和生态变化(Lewis et al. 2009)。尽管取得了这些伟大的科学成就，但在主流学术话语中，热带地区在很大程度上仍然是遥远的，而且往往是充满异国情调的想象，与全球温带地区相比，我们对热带地区居住和人类适应的深刻历史的理解尤其稀少(Mercader 2003)。我们对热带人类过去的知识差距也通常导致热带社会与更广泛的综合考虑相隔离，美洲热带低地可能是最好的服务(例如Clasby和Nesbitt 2021;里皮2004;斯特尔1995)。尽管最近的一些考古发现使热带地区成为建立包容性全球历史的焦点(例如Bulliet et al. 2014)，但热带考古学仍然缺乏代表性，尽管最近有人试图强调热带雨林对理解我们物种的“深层历史”(Scerri et al. 2022)和“人类世”(Roberts, Hamilton, and Piperno 2021)的重要性。在关于现代人类起源、农业和早期国家等基本考古问题的学术辩论中，热带考古学的声音仍然有限。正如许多研究人员所承认的那样，热带居民考古学面临的技术挑战之一，不仅是古生态证据，而且由于普遍的(尽管不是普遍的)酸性土壤条件和其他地学问题(但也要注意，在一些热带环境中，土和石头建筑可以保存得很好)，过去生活的易腐烂的建筑遗迹普遍保存不善。尽管越来越多的科学技术的应用已经开始推翻对热带地区能够提供给我们的完全消极的印象，以解开他们复杂的历史，但学者们越来越多地采用的宏观观点和微观观察仍然需要强有力地整合在一起，以创建更全面的重建古代人口如何与他们的环境相互作用。的确，我们对热带居民的特殊多样性的认识还处于初级阶段，对支撑这种内在多样性的显著不同的历史进程的认识也是如此。因此，本期《世界考古学》的主要目标之一是弥合“家庭考古学”和“景观世界考古学2021,VOL. 53, NO. 5”之间的分析鸿沟。4,563 - 578 https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.2062885
{"title":"Harvesting the winds, harvesting the rain: an introduction to the issue on Inhabiting tropical worlds","authors":"Yijie Zhuang, P. Lane","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.2062885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.2062885","url":null,"abstract":"The tropics occupy one third of the earth’s landmass and are home to more than 40% of the global population. They were destinations of many voyages that changed modern human history and the location of many of the greatest scientific discoveries and observations that have profoundly shaped the direction and advancement of scientific research (e.g. Charles Darwin’s Galapagos experiences). They continue to stimulate great public interest – Sir David Attenborough’s popular tropical television documentaries are a great manifestation of this – and research on the tropics continues to shift the boundaries of our scientific quest into the planet’s natural history. The latter includes recent scientific recognition of the importance of carbon storage and sequestration in Africa’s tropical forests and wetlands and how these processes might contribute to further our understanding of global carbon cycles and ecological changes (Lewis et al. 2009). Despite these great scientific achievements, the tropics remain largely remote and often exotic imaginaries in mainstream academic discourse and our understanding of the deep histories of tropical inhabitation and human adaptation is particularly sparse (Mercader 2003), compared to that of the global temperate zones. The gaps in our knowledge of tropical human pasts have also commonly led to the isolation of tropical societies from consideration in broader syntheses, with the lowland American tropics being perhaps best served (e.g. Clasby and Nesbitt 2021; Lippi 2004; Stahl 1995). Although some recent archaeological discoveries have brought the tropics into the spotlight in efforts to establish an inclusive global history (e.g. Bulliet et al. 2014), the archaeology of the tropics is still under-represented despite the recent attempts to highlight the importance of tropical rainforests to understanding both the ‘deep history’ of our species (Scerri et al. 2022) and ‘the Anthropocene’ (Roberts, Hamilton, and Piperno 2021). In academic debates on the fundamental archaeological questions such as the origins of modern humans, agriculture and early states, the voice of tropical archaeology remains limited. One of the technical challenges in the archaeology of tropical inhabitation, as acknowledged by many researchers, is the generally poor preservation of not only palaeoecological evidence but also perishable architectural remains of past lives due to the common (although by no means universal) acid soil conditions and other taphonomic issues (but note also that earthen and stone architecture can be well preserved in some tropical settings). Although the growing application of scientific techniques has started to overturn the wholly negative pictures of what the tropics can offer us to disentangle their complicated histories, the macroscopic perspectives and microscopic observations that are increasingly adopted by scholars remain to be robustly integrated to create more holistic reconstructions of how ancient population","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"563 - 578"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44174544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-08DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1997637
J. Farr
ABSTRACT Using multidisciplinary literature, this paper takes a multispecies approach to human-termite interactions across the tropics to demonstrate how termites exploit ecological effects of human behaviours and in turn provide humans with significant ecosystem services. These provisions are deeply entangled within cultural practices and ideologies. Conceptualisations of human and landscape fertility, and the role of termites in facilitating life, create gendered interactions that are manifested in ecological knowledge and praxis relating to termites and termite mounds. The strong association between termites and farmers in particular, may offer insights into past human settlement patterns and their relationships with ecosystems. This paper proposes the use of geomorphology, thin-section ceramic petrography, and stable isotope analysis to investigate these relationships across the tropics. A multispecies approach creates new possibilities for a diachronic understanding of human ecology and raises important questions for the Anthropocene and the future of farming in the tropics.
{"title":"Islands of fertility: a multispecies ethnography of human-termite interactions and their implications for human ecology and the archaeology of gender in the tropics","authors":"J. Farr","doi":"10.1080/00438243.2021.1997637","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1997637","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using multidisciplinary literature, this paper takes a multispecies approach to human-termite interactions across the tropics to demonstrate how termites exploit ecological effects of human behaviours and in turn provide humans with significant ecosystem services. These provisions are deeply entangled within cultural practices and ideologies. Conceptualisations of human and landscape fertility, and the role of termites in facilitating life, create gendered interactions that are manifested in ecological knowledge and praxis relating to termites and termite mounds. The strong association between termites and farmers in particular, may offer insights into past human settlement patterns and their relationships with ecosystems. This paper proposes the use of geomorphology, thin-section ceramic petrography, and stable isotope analysis to investigate these relationships across the tropics. A multispecies approach creates new possibilities for a diachronic understanding of human ecology and raises important questions for the Anthropocene and the future of farming in the tropics.","PeriodicalId":47942,"journal":{"name":"WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY","volume":"53 1","pages":"667 - 687"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49149336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1930134
M. Carson, H. Hung
ABSTRACT When people first lived in remote tropical seashores, they developed novel adaptations for living in these extreme environments, including the use of a specialized octopus lure device. The evidence for this fishing tradition now can be traced back as early as 1500–1100 BC in the Mariana Islands of Western Micronesia. New research has examined the artefacts of these compound lure devices, especially concerning the cut and drilled dorsum pieces of cowrie (Cypraea spp.) shells. Without this archaeological evidence, octopuses would have been undetected in the ancient deposits, and therefore a significant portion of past diet, innovative technology, and traditional practice would have been hidden from modern knowledge. The findings portray a broader and more realistic scene of ancient coastal communities, with implications beyond the confines of the specific island societies of the Pacific.
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