Geschiedenis, archeologie en waterbouwkunde; theoretische samenwerkingsmodellen voor interdisciplinair onderzoek met als vertrekpunt de laatmiddeleeuwse uitwateringssluizen van Spaarndam

The confrontation of lock and sluice research with interdisciplinary cooperative models by F. Verhaeghe and H.L. Janssen can be summarized by five propositions which general applicability for interdisciplinary research is to be further tested. Firstly, Verhaeghe and Janssen pay no attention to the possibility that even in research in which interdisciplinary cooperation was not anticipated, the presentation of questions may lead to an interdisciplinary approach. In such a case there is a risk that the presentation of questions and the research object of the other discipline are taken over. However, afterwards the cognizance of the presentation of questions of the other disciplines will result in a more sharply and better-defined presentation of one's own questions in the research. Moreover, influence from other disciplines may make the presentation of questions more profound and give the informative value of one's own sources a wider scope. Secondly, 'interdisciplinary language acquisition' is required for interdisciplinary research. This should be done in a rather deliberate way prior to or during the first phase of the research and calls for experiments with various forms of communication. Thirdly, also due to the use of other sources of information, each discipline requires a different source analysis. For that reason, as a supplement to Janssen, sufficient room should be made in interdisciplinary research for the 'intradisciplinary phase'. In this phase the results of source analysis within the particular discipline and the intradisciplinary interpretation preceding the translation into other disciplines are tested. In the fourth place, the various phases of an interdisciplinary research project are run through several times cyclically, consequently, in a genuine research process the two complementary levels of Verhaeghe and Janssen recur a number of times. Finally, since interdisciplinary language acquisition is required for interdisciplinary communication, an interdisciplinary approach may delay the research process. However, some presentations of questions can only be answered in an interdisciplinary way. This particularly applies to the medieval history of hydraulic engineering with respect to which so few written, historical sources have been passed down to us

Development of embodied capital: Diet composition, foraging skills, and botanical knowledge of forager children in the Congo Basin

The embodied capital theory states that the extended juvenile period has enabled human foragers to acquire the complex foraging skills and knowledge needed to obtain food. Yet we lack detailed data on how forager children develop these skills and knowledge. Here, we examine the seasonal diet composition, foraging behavior, and botanical knowledge of Mbendjele BaYaka forager children in the Republic of the Congo. Our data, acquired through long-term observations involving full-day focal follows, show a high level of seasonal fluctuation in diet and foraging activities of BaYaka children, in response to the seasonal availability of their food sources. BaYaka children foraged more than half of the time independent from adults, predominantly collecting and eating fruits, tubers, and seeds. For these most-consumed food types, we found an early onset of specialization of foraging skills in children, similar to the gendered division in foraging in adults. Specifically, children were more likely to eat fruit and seed species when there were more boys and men in the group, and girls were more likely than boys to collect tuber species. In a botanical knowledge test, children were more accurate at identifying plant food species with increasing age, and they used fruits and trunks for species identification, more so than using leaves and barks. These results show how the foraging activities of BaYaka children may facilitate the acquisition of foraging skills and botanical knowledge and provide insights into the development of embodied capital. Additionally, BaYaka children consumed agricultural foods more than forest foods, probably reflecting BaYaka’s transition into a horticultural lifestyle. This change in diet composition may have significant consequences for the cognitive development of BaYaka children