Ancient Herders Enriched and Restructured African Grasslands | 2022 Oosting Lecture

THE 49TH ANNUAL HENRY J. OOSTING MEMORIAL LECTURE IN ECOLOGY

FIONA MARSHALL, JAMES W. & JEAN L. DAVIS PROFESSOR IN ARTS & SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

4233 French Family Science Center and virtually via Zoom

Light Refreshments At 3:30 P.M. - French Family Science Center Outdoor Plaza

Dr. Fiona Marshall's research focuses on African archaeology, animal domestication, and pastoralism. Marshall's projects and those of her graduate students contribute to understanding human-animal relations, interactions among ancient pastoral and hunter-gatherer societies, the history and resilience of livestock and herding ways of life, and the role of people in the long-term creation and maintenance of African landscapes.

Marshall's investigation of early food production, climatic shifts, and movement of early herders have positioned her as an international expert on human influences on African savannas and on animal domestication. She is currently conducting research on how animals with less social behavior like donkeys and cats became domesticated. Long-term field work in Kenya has revealed that ancient mobile herders had positive influences on African savannas through creation of high-nutrient settlement patches that persist to this day. Data on the role of milk and meat in Neolithic pastoral diets provide perspectives on lactase persistence. Dietary variability was a theme of Marshall's ethnoarchaeological research among former Okiek hunters and honey collectors in Kenya. Her long-term collaborative research on the domestication of the donkey includes behavioral research on dibokali or E. africanus, the wild ancestor of the donkey, ethnoarchaeological research on pastoral women's donkey management, and morphometric and genetic components. Recent international research examines the role of donkeys in transport and sports in Tang, China.

The Oosting Lecture is an annual presentation by distinguished scholars with an international reputation in the field of Ecology. The endowed lecture honors the preeminent plant ecologist, Henry J. Oosting, and is presented by the University Program in Ecology, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Department of Biology. For a list of previous Oosting Lecture Speakers, visit https: //ecology.duke.edu/henry-j-oosting-memorial-lecture/.