Many argue that hunter-gatherer groups adopt pottery for subsistence purposes, such as storage and cooking/food processing. Others argue that early pottery supports a system of social differentiation, whereby it is used as a prestige item in competitive feasting or as serving vessels for elite members of the group. For thousands of years, groups of fisher-hunter-gatherers exploited abundant marine and terrestrial resources along the Atlantic coast of Brazil, and constructed large shellfish mounds, called sambaquis, where people built villages and buried their dead. Pottery first appeared at sambaqui sites 1000 years ago, with no other evident change in technology. This research will test the subsistence model for the adoption of ceramic technology among sambaqui groups, and provide a comprehensive study of coastal forager diet in southeastern Brazil from 5000 to 600 BP. This study examines the assumption that the appearance of pottery in the archaeological record indicates a shift in diet or food processing techniques. The investigators will use human skeletal and dental remains from archaeological sites in the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro to investigate whether the diet of coastal foragers changed with the adoption of pottery. These populations are ideal for this study because they exploited marine and terrestrial resources along the Atlantic coast over a long and environmentally stable period of time. The researchers will analyze stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios derived from bone collagen and apatite to examine sources of plant and animal consumption before and after the introduction of pottery. This study will be the first to directly explore the possibility that coastal foraging groups began cultivating maize at 1000 BP. The researchers will conduct a study of dental microwear using texture analysis, a method that will create a 3D image of the occlusal aspect of the tooth surface. This method has a low rate of observer error, and is quantifiable and repeatable. Microwear data will be used to evaluate changes in diet between Pre-Ceramic and Ceramic occupations, as well as determine if changes in food processing techniques occurred with the adoption of pottery. This study will address theoretical problems in anthropology regarding the sociopolitical and economic correlates of pottery at prehistoric sites, and explore the social dynamics of technological change among sedentary hunter-gatherers. It will also provide dietary data that will contribute to models of prehistoric adaptation in coastal environments. This project will supply the graduate student with the training and qualifications necessary to pursue future anthropological research as a PhD, and will lay a foundation for future collaborative investigations with archaeologists and anthropologists in Brazil. The results of this dissertation will be presented to the broader academic community at scientific meetings and peer-reviewed journals.
