IHP-EFEO Talk: Can Human Behavioral Ecology Models Contribute to Understanding of the Neolithization of Taiwan?

• 主辦單位 Organisers

Research Center for Taiwan and Southeast Asian Archaeology, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 

中央研究院歷史語言研究所台灣與東南亞考古研究室

&

French School of Asian Studies (EFEO)

法國遠東學院

• 演講大綱 Abstract

The Neolithization of Taiwan involved adaptive responses of immigrating cultivators and territory-holding hunter gatherers, as well as subsequent adjustments to subsistence and settlement on both sides. The Two Layer Model describes Taiwan hunter-gatherers as marginalized and then completely displaced within a few centuries. This has been advanced on the basis of the lack of archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence for persistence. Yet ethnographic information about farmer/hunter-gatherer interactions, as well as the archaeological record of SE China, suggest that the process may have been more complex and gradual, with variations arising in different habitats. This opens an opportunity to consider evolutionary theory. Human behavioral ecology (HBE seeks to predict decision-making by individuals who seek to maximize the ratio of energy capture to energy output (as a proxy to reproductive success). HBE models are increasingly used by archaeologists as heuristic tools to derive working hypotheses regarding past behaviors that relate to the origins of food production, migrations, inter-cultural encounters, and more. In this paper, I evaluate the strengths and limitations of the 'Ideal Free Distribution', 'Invasion and Niche Breadth, Prey Choice,' and 'Niche Construction' Models for archaeological hypothesis building about hunter gatherer/cultivator encounters during the early Neolithization of Taiwan.

• 講者介紹 Speaker

Prof. Pei-Lin YU 余琲琳 教授

Pei-Lin Yu is currently a Research Fellow at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan. Current positions also include Affiliate Professor of Anthropology at Boise State University, Archaeologist at the Corps of Engineers. Yu grew up in New Mexico, USA in a Taiwanese-American family. Her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology is from the University of New Mexico, and Masters and PhD degrees at Southern Methodist University. In the public sector she has worked as a federal archaeologist, museum curator, wildland fire-fighter, Tribal Repatriation specialist, and federal science program coordinator. Yu's academic experience includes teaching archaeology at Sacramento State University, University of Montana, and Boise State University. Research interests include hunting and gathering lifeways, Neolithic transitions of East Asia, Taiwan Indigenous archaeology, ethnoarchaeological research methodologies, traditional ecological and farming knowledge, cultural heritage of Chinese mining communities in the American West, and climate change impacts to cultural heritage in national parks. Yu has worked closely with the Pumé hunter-gatherers of Venezuela and more recently, Amis indigenous farmer-gardeners of SE Taiwan as a Fulbright Senior Researcher. Yu's publications include eight books, two edited journals, and 25 articles. Collaborations with archaeologists and cultural experts throughout the United States include 23 Native American tribes with particular focus on the inland Pacific Northwest.

• Registration is not required. 本演講無需報名，請自由入座。
• The talk will be given in English.本演講將以英文進行。