Dissertation Research: Archaeology and Ethnohistory in Yucatan

为了完成她的博士论文研究，拉尼·亚历山大女士将在罗伯特·桑特利博士的指导下，在墨西哥尤卡坦半岛亚苏纳地区进行考古和民族历史研究。 她将重点关注公元十七和十八世纪，在此期间，该地区的当地农村经济日益融入更广泛的西班牙殖民经济。 通过查阅丰富的文献资源，她将能够更详细地追踪这一过程。 对几个地点的挖掘将允许实地重建消费、定居和房屋组织的模式。 对这两个数据体的比较将有助于阐明经济变化的实质性关联。 虽然研究复杂社会发展的考古学家长期以来一直对这些实体扩张的机制感兴趣，但他们的重点一直集中在核心或中心地区，而忽视了边远地区。 事实上，确定这些地区的经济如何发生变化的方法尚未开发出来。 不存在可靠的技术来对考古数据提出此类问题。 由于亚苏纳地区的文献证据非常丰富，而且最近的发展并没有掩盖大多数考古遗址，因此尤卡坦半岛的这一地区为进行此类研究提供了极好的受控环境。 这项研究不仅对于了解墨西哥历史很重要，而且对于将要开发的分析技术也很重要。 这些对于世界许多地方的考古学家来说应该是有用的。 由于亚历山大女士将雇用并帮助培训一名墨西哥现场助理，她将为墨西哥考古基础设施的发展做出直接贡献。

To complete her doctoral dissertation research Ms. Rani Alexander, under the direction of Dr. Robert Santley, will conduct archaeological and ethnohistoric research in the region of Yaxuna, Yucatan, Mexico. She will focus on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries A.D., the period during which the local rural economy of this region became increasingly incorporated into the broader Spanish colonial economy. Through examination of abundant documentary resources she will be able to trace this process in some detail. Excavation of several sites will allow on-the-ground reconstruction of patterns of consumption, settlement and houselot organization. Comparison of these two bodies of data will then permit elucidation of the material correlates of economic change. While archaeologists who study the development of complex societies have long been interested in the mechanisms through which such entities expand, their focus has been on core or central areas to the detriment of outlying regions. In fact methodologies to determine how such areas were economically changed have not been developed. Robust techniques do not exist to ask such questions of archaeological data. Because documentary evidence in the Yaxuna region is excellent and recent development has not obscured most archaeological sites, this part of Yucatan provides an excellent controlled context to conduct such research. This research is important not only for the light it will shed on Mexican history but also for the analytic techniques which will be developed. These should be useful to archaeologists in many parts of the world. Because Ms. Alexander will employ and help train a Mexican field assistant, she will make a direct contribution to developing the archaeological infrastructure in Mexico.