Dissertation Research: Architectural Patterns and Political Organization in the Prehistoric Southwest

在斯蒂芬·普洛格博士的指导下，玛丽·梅特卡夫女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将参观美国的一些考古库，并研究在美国西南部挖掘史前阿纳萨齐遗址的考古学家的笔记和图纸。这项工作的目标是了解这些史前民族的政治和社会组织，以及他们的社会在多大程度上是按照平等主义或等级制度组织起来的。要做到这一点，梅特卡夫将主要负责网站平面图和网站建筑描述。她将计算公共建筑的面积和数量，而不是家庭活动。她还将研究施工方法和投入到每个项目上的劳动量。最后，她将检查公共区域的位置，以确定其进入受到限制的程度。将对涵盖三个地理区域、跨越数百年的大量遗址进行考察，通过比较，梅特卡尔夫女士将确定政治组织如何随着时间的推移而发生变化。美国西南部的史前阿纳萨齐人在没有文字的情况下，用相对简单的技术建造了由数百个房间组成的大型多层石头和土坯建筑。他们的社会融合了数以千计的人民，并修建了道路，以便长途运输货物。他们在干旱和不可预测的环境条件下做到了这一点。考古学家希望了解使这一成就成为可能的政治和社会制度。到目前为止，他们还不知道中央集权政治组织存在的程度。虽然一些研究人员认为，这种水平的发展可以在相对“平等”的背景下发生，但另一些人认为，在这种情况下，这种成就是不可能的。梅特卡夫的研究应该有助于回答这个问题。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对复杂社会是如何产生的理解。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并为了解美洲原住民文化的一个亮点提供新的线索。它还将帮助培训一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Plog, Ms. Mary Metcalf will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will visit a number of archaeological repositories in the United States and study the notes and drawings of archaeologists who excavated prehistoric Anasazi sites in the U.S. Southwest. The goal of this work is to understand the political and social organization of these prehistoric peoples and the extent to which their society was organized along egalitarian or hierarchical lines. To do this, Ms. Metcalf will work primarily with site plans and descriptions of site architecture. She will calculate the areal extent and number of buildings devoted to public as opposed to family activities. She will also look at methods of construction and amount of labor which were devoted to each. Finally she will examine the location of public areas to determine the extent their access was restricted. A large number of sites covering three geographical areas and spanning several hundred years will be examined and by means of comparison Ms. Metcalf will determine how political organization changed over time. Without writing and with a relatively simple technology the prehistoric Anasazi peoples of the U.S. Southwest constructed large multistory stone and adobe structures consisting of hundreds of rooms. Their society integrated thousands of peoples and constructed roads to move goods over long distances. They accomplished this in arid and unpredictable environmental conditions. Archaeologists wish to understand the political and social system which made this achievement possible. To date they do not know the extent to which centralized political organization existed. While some reseachers believe that this level of development can take place in a relatively "egalitarian" context, others believe that accomplishments of this kind are not possible in such a situation. Ms. Metcalf's research should help to answer this question. This research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how complex societies arise. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed new light on one of the highpoints of Native American culture. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.