Dissertation Research: Constructing Palmarino Identity: The Archaeology and History of Palmares, a 17th-century Brazilian Quilombo

在谢泼德·克雷奇三世博士的指导下，斯科特·艾伦先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将在位于巴西阿拉戈斯的Serra da Barriga山上的17世纪棕榈山的首都Macaco进行考古挖掘。棕榈树人是逃离殖民种植园的逃亡奴隶，他们建立了自己的社会，这个社会发展并存活了大约100年。Palmares成功击退了荷兰人的多次进攻，最终落入葡萄牙人手中。尽管棕榈树没有留下文字记录，但他们在几个殖民文件中被描述，这些文件提供了对他们的政治和社会组织的(可能有偏见的)洞察。看来，在一个多世纪的独立存在中，该组织将原始非洲元素与从种植园获得的知识融合在一起，并与土著美洲人接触，打造了一种新的文化。通过他在Palmares的挖掘，艾伦将研究这一过程的副产品。他将重点关注陶器制造和使用、住房建设以及村庄布局和活动区方面的空间格局的变化。考古学家已经认识到，文化实体往往是短暂的现象，人类可以以惊人的速度重新定义社会边界。这与旧的模型形成了鲜明对比，旧模型认识到，尽管团体会随着时间的推移而变化，但在边界和成员方面都具有相当长期的完整性。“民族起源”指的是种族群体的形成过程，棕榈马是一个很好的案例研究，因为他们的历史被大致地了解了。然而，人们不知道棕榈树是如何在短时间内形成一个独特的身份，他们如何将不同文化传统的元素融合在一起，以及这种身份是如何以物质形式表达的。艾伦的研究应该会为这一过程提供重要的启示。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供对新世界历史鲜为人知的方面的新见解，并提供考古学家和历史学家感兴趣的信息。它还将增加对世界不同地区多次发生的基本过程的理解，并通过对物质文化的研究，为考古学家提供新的分析技术。这项工作还将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Shepard Krech III, Mr. Scott Allen will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological excavation at Macaco, the seventeenth century 'capital' of the Palmares which is located on the Serra da Barriga, a mountain in Alagoas, Brazil. The Palmares were fugitive slaves who fled colonial plantations and established their own society which developed and survived for approximately 100 years. The Palmares successfully repelled repeated attacks by the Dutch, before finally falling to the Portuguese. Although the Palmares left no written record, they are described in several colonial documents which provide (a likely biased) insight into their political and social organization. It appears that over a century of independent existence the group melded original African elements with knowledge acquired on plantations and contact with indigenous native Americans to forge a new culture. Through his excavations at Palmares Mr. Allen will examine the material byproducts of this process. He will focus on changes in pottery manufacture and use, housing construction and spatial patterning in terms of village layout and activity areas. Archaeologists have come to realize that cultural entities are often short-lived phenomena and that humans can redefine social boundaries with surprising rapidity. This contrasts to older models which recognized that groups, although they change over time, have considerable long-term integrity in terms of both boundaries and membership. `Ethnogenesis` refers to the process of ethnic group emergence and the Palmares provide an excellent case study for this since their history is known in broad outline. It is not understood however how the Palmares were able to develop a distinct identity over a short period of time, how they melded together elements from different cultural traditions and how this identity was expressed in material terms. Mr. Allen's research should shed significant light on this process. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide new insight into a little understood aspect of New World history and provide information of interest to both archaeologists and historians. It will also increase the understanding of a basic process which took place many times in different parts of the world and, through a study of material culture, provide archaeologists with new analytic techniques. The work will also assist in training a promising young scientist.