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anthropocentric perspective?

This question is aimed at querying whether human-animal relationships at CCN and MB can be understood as more than hunting wild animals or controlling domesticated ones.

Since both CCN and MB are burial sites, human-animal interactions have the potential to display something about the belief systems and ontology of the people. Additionally, following the arguments outlined above that CCN reveals an increase in sedentism and MB provides evidence supporting the two-layer hypothesis, what can be said regarding societal and ideological changes in this period? How did people perceive and relate to their surrounding environment?

These questions are discussed in greater detail in Chapter eleven section 11.6., drawing from theoretical frameworks introduced in Chapter four. My approach to these queries is greatly influenced by developing conceptions around agency and interspecies studies in post-humanist scholarship (Haraway 2008a; 2008b; Hayward 2012; Overton and Hamilakis 2013). The aim is to understand domestication from a less anthropocentric

perspective by emphasising animal agency and an asymmetric approach to human-animal relationships (see Chapter four, section 4.5). Asymmetrical relationships oppose automatically assuming that human-animal relationships are essentially governed by domination or control.

Asymmetry has been applied to other fields, especially gender studies, where scholars have argued that human-human relationships are almost always asymmetrical (Haraway 2008b;

Armstrong Oma 2010). Thus, the asymmetry of human-animal relationships becomes less about human exceptionalism and interspecies difference, and more about looking at what else is at play. The goal is to show how zooarchaeology can be a useful tool in highlighting not only human agency, but also agency of non-human animals.

1.3. Relevance and contribution of study

As mentioned previously, CCN and MB have been selected to address these outstanding research problems as they sit on either side of the period that is presumed to represent the transition from foraging to farming and the beginnings of modern agricultural practices and domestication of animals in Vietnam. The faunal assemblages from CCN and MB have yet to be studied in detail. This study aims to address these questions directly and in greater depth in order to better understand the transition from hunting and gathering to the beginnings of agriculture, animal domestication, and sedentism in northern Vietnam.

Improving our understanding of how and when human populations adopted a sedentary pattern of existence and integrated domestic animals into their subsistence strategies will not only improve our understanding of the Neolithic in Vietnam, it will also provide a baseline of data for the origins of human and animal populations that migrated south and east across MSEA. This will have wider implications for the timing of this transition within the context of MSEA. In particular, this thesis will hold implications related to previous scholarship on migrations of people within the later Neolithic and the two-layer/

farming dispersal hypotheses.

Although there has been a handful of faunal analyses published on Vietnam (Vu The Long et al. 1996; Bacon et al. 2004; Piper et al. 2012; Oxenham et al. 2015) and preliminary faunal analyses of CCN (Vu The Long 1980) and MB (Sawada et al. 2011; Toizumi et al. 2011), as yet, no significant zooarchaeology research has been undertaken/published comparing assemblages across the wider region. Further afield, zooarchaeology has been gaining attention in Thailand, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, which will be useful comparisons to this study (Higham 1975b; 2004; Grant and Higham 1991; Ma 2004; Flad et al. 2007; Piper et al. 2008b; Jin and Shipman 2010; Kijngam 2010; Yuan

2010; Amano et al. 2013; Piper and Rabett 2016). Additionally, most zooarchaeological research in SEA has been characterised by relatively limited theoretical development.

This partly mirrors a reluctance to engage in social theory in the sub-discipline itself due to its ancestral links with taxonomy (Overton and Hamilakis 2013). This thesis attempts not only to bring a valuable data set of zooarchaeological information into an understudied region, but to also add theoretical development by providing new frameworks for conceptualising the zooarchaeological record in SEA.

1.4. Terminology

While it is important to continually evaluate the definition and usage of the Neolithic, it is a term that remains popular within literature due to its convenience as a general descriptor and widespread applicability. Although the term ‘Neolithic’ is commonly used within Vietnamese archaeology, it is not wholly satisfactory in that is does not directly equate with the Neolithic of Europe or the Middle East. In Vietnam it is used to indicate the use of grinding-stone technology and ceramic production (Nguyen Khac Su et al. 2004, 177). However, strong evidence for agriculture or domestication of animals is limited to the later stage of the Neolithic. Further, Oxenham and Matsumura (2011, 128) point out that ceramic production is absent prior to the Đa Bút period. The term ‘Mesolithic’, a phase between the Neolithic and Palaeolithic in other parts of the world, is not used in Vietnam (Nguyen Khac Su et al. 2004, 177).

In China, pottery production begins with foraging populations from c. 20,000 BP and sedentary villages appear from c. 9,000 BP (Cohen 2011; Zhang and Hung 2012).

However, domestication of plants and animals arrive at different times in different places and domesticates did not make a significant contribution to the diet until several millennia later (Cohen 2011; Zhang and Hung 2012). Zhang and Hung (2012, 11) note that the

‘Neolithic’ in China denotes the manufacturing of pottery but does not imply agriculture.

Similarly, Cohen (2011, 288) definition of the ‘Early Neolithic’ in China is linked with several crucial developments: sedentism, social and ideological changes, new concepts of territoriality, ownership, and an increase in niche construction. Thus, this definition of

‘Neolithic’ does not involve farming or domestication as essential ingredients from the onset.

Following these definitions, the Đa Bút period in Vietnam could be argued to represent a similar ‘Early Neolithic’ with widespread use of pottery, increased sedentism, a complex subsistence economy and – this thesis argues – ideological and social changes as

evidenced from increases in niche construction. However, it is important to note the term

‘Neolithic’ is a loaded concept originating from Near Eastern and European archaeology and the ways in which the Neolithic is expressed varies around the world.

Chronological terminology follows Rabett and Piper (2012, 38). Dates are either referred to as ‘BP’, years before present, or ‘cal. BP’ if calibrated radiocarbon dates are available. The Late Pleistocene is informally defined as a period from c. 40,000 BP until the end of the of the glacial period. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) spans the period from 26,500–19,000 BP. The Last Termination covers the period from the height of the LGM to the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary c. 22,000–11,700 BP. Finally, the Holocene is generally divided into Early, Mid and Late periods, with the Mid Holocene here defined as c. 7,500–4,500 BP. Since this thesis concentrates on two Mid Holocene sites and the transition from foraging and hunting to domestication, the bulk of the literature review covers the Terminal Pleistocene to Mid Holocene period.

1.5. Structure of thesis

This thesis is comprised of 12 chapters. The first chapter introduces the aims, objectives, and questions driving the thesis and provides the reader with an understanding of the main concepts and debates within the research topic. Chapter two provides the environmental and archaeological background to the sites. Previous research specifically on CCN and MB is addressed to build the local and regional context. Overall, Chapters one and two highlight the relevant gaps in scholarship and how this thesis aims to contribute to SEA archaeology.

Chapter three offers a wider perspective on zooarchaeological research within MSEA and southern China from the Late Pleistocene to the Mid Holocene. This situates CCN and MB within their temporal, regional, and historical contexts as well as within the wider framework of academic research within SEA. It is argued that while there is a perceivable transition to domesticated animals through the introduction of pigs and dogs in the Mid-Late Holocene, there is considerable inter-site variability.

Chapter four provides the theoretical frameworks this thesis rests on: a post-humanist

‘social zooarchaeology’ and niche construction theory. The aim is to integrate theoretical approaches that have developed independently in science and social sciences into the way zooarchaeology conceptualises domestication. These developing approaches have great potential in understanding human-animal relationships and the SEA record without the

necessity of fitting into reductionist models.

Chapter five specifies the methodology used throughout the thesis, the rationale behind the techniques employed, and main issues surrounding these methods. The main areas addressed are: excavation and post-excavation techniques, taphonomy, quantification, ageing and sexing of faunal remains, statistical methods, and radiocarbon dating.

The results chapters are split into five chapters. Chapter six covers the taphonomic and taxonomic faunal analysis of CCN, and Chapter seven provides the same information for MB. Areas that are addressed specifically include the quantification and spatial distribution of skeletal elements, a taphonomic analysis of the faunal remains, and a taxonomic identification and description of the species excavated from both sites.

Chapter eight gives a biometric analysis of the pigs, dogs, and bovids from CCN and MB compared to published data. The primary purpose of collecting biometric data for pigs and dogs was to assess whether they were domesticated or in the early phases of domestication. For bovids it was also to attempt to distinguish between different genera and species of Bovinae. For the pigs, cluster analyses and significance testing were performed to determine whether there were perceivable groups or clusters within the data.

The results are interpreted with ANOVA post-hoc testing.

Chapter nine provides a taxonomic comparison of CCN and MB and a regional meta-analysis. The specific comparison between CCN and MB is largely based on taxonomic indices outlined in Lyman (2008). The purpose of this is to understand and account for any perceivable similarities or differences between the assemblages. The multivariate meta-analysis is aimed at addressing wider regional patterns within SEA faunal assemblages, which contextualises both sites within the broader ‘big picture’. The final results section, Chapter ten, summarises the radiocarbon dating (¹⁴C) results for CCN and MB. The aim of ¹⁴C for CCN was to provide a scientific series of dates to test whether relative dates based on ceramic and lithic typologies were robust. The aim of obtaining ¹⁴C dates for MB was to securely pin a minimum age for the introduction of domesticated animals into northern Vietnam.

Chapter eleven is the discussion chapter which summarises the main findings of the thesis, addresses each aim and objective, and attempts to understand this in relation to theoretical frameworks described above (section 1.2.1.). Finally, Chapter twelve concludes the thesis with a summary of the major findings and suggestions for future research.

2.1. Introduction

T

^his chapter provides the environmental and archaeological backgrounds of CCN and MB. The environmental section briefly details the geography and environment of SEA, in particular on northern Vietnam, and provides a summary of paleoenvironmental conditions during the Holocene. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to providing the archaeological background of CCN and MB, specifically addressing previous excavations and research. Particular attention is paid to palaeoenvironmental and faunal analyses.

2.2. Environmental background

2.2.1. Geography of Southeast Asia

The recognition of SEA as a separate political and geographical entity is very recent.

SEA is not a natural biogeographical unit as it is sharply divided into two zoogeographical boundaries by the Wallace and Lydekkar Lines, which mark the boundary between Oriental and Australian fauna (Corlett 2005, 105). The boundary between these lines is known as Wallacea, a biogeograhical transitional zone with its own distinct fauna. However, SEA is distinguished from most other areas in the tropics by its forest climates and its native fauna largely adapted to and dependent on forests (Corlett 2005, 114).

As defined by Gupta (2005, 38): “Southeast Asia is a corner of the continent of Asia which ends in an assemblage of peninsulas, archipelagos, and partially enclosed seas.” To the north is the eastern Tibetan plateau, the Himalayan Mountains, the plateau of Assam in India, and the Yunnan Province of China (Figure 2-1). A number of large rivers run from this mountainous region in a north-south and northwest-southeast direction. To the south and east are coastal plains, rocky peninsulas, and deltas. On the outer margins of SEA are the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines. The northern edge of SEA is characterised by mountain ranges and steep gorges with large rivers. The northern mountainous region

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