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资料。她将访问一个 在美国的考古仓库数量， 研究考古学家的笔记和图纸， 美国西南部的史前阿纳萨齐人遗址这个目标 工作是了解政治和社会组织的 这些史前民族以及他们的社会 是按照沿着平等主义或等级制度组织起来的。做 梅特卡夫女士将主要负责现场平面图， 网站架构的描述。她会计算出 公共建筑的范围和数量， 家庭活动。她还将研究建筑方法 和投入到每个人身上的劳动量。最后她会 检查公共区域的位置，以确定 他们的访问受到限制。大量的网站覆盖 三个地理区域，跨越数百年， 通过比较梅特卡夫女士将决定 政治组织是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。 没有文字，用相对简单的技术， 美国西南部的史前阿纳萨齐人建造了 大型多层石头和土坯结构， 数百个房间。他们的社会融合了成千上万的民族 并修建公路来长途运输货物。他们 在干旱和不可预测的环境中实现了这一目标 条件考古学家希望了解政治和 使这一成就成为可能。迄今为止， 我不知道中央集权的政治 组织存在。虽然一些研究人员认为， 发展水平可以发生在一个相对“平等”的 在这种背景下，其他人认为这种成就不是 在这种情况下可能。梅特卡夫女士的研究应该能帮助 来回答这个问题。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。将加大 我们对复杂社会如何产生的理解。它将提供 许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并揭示了一个新的光 美洲土著文化的精华它还将协助 培养一个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.