Dissertation Research: Households and the Emergence of Inequality in the Prehispanic Calchaqui Valley, Argentina

在特伦斯·达特洛伊博士的指导下，柯尔斯滕·奥尔森女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的项目的目标是研究社会复杂性的发展与个别家庭单位内活动的组织之间的关系。近年来，考古学家越来越多地关注家庭单位。国内建筑的遗迹往往很丰富，在大型遗址中很容易辨认出来，因此很容易进行检查。其次，越来越清楚的是，即使在复杂的国家级社会中，大多数谋生和制造活动也发生在家庭中，而不是寺庙或其他礼仪性建筑中，因此，人们可以通过研究最小的基本单位来洞察广泛的社会组织。一组人类学理论预测，随着社会变得复杂，社会角色的定义变得更加严格，这对家庭组织内部产生了影响。还假设，随着复杂性的增加，家庭之间的分层也会发生，财富和地位的差异也会出现。奥尔森女士将通过挖掘阿根廷北部安第斯山脉卡奇阿登特罗地区的四个遗址来评估这些预测。作为对该地区长期研究的结果，特伦斯·达特洛伊博士和他的同事们确定了一个史前序列，从早期的狩猎和采集群体开始，一直延续到西班牙的征服。在区域发展时期(约公元1,000-1410年)，后续群体的特点是社会复杂性不断增加，这为奥尔森女士研究家庭组织随时间的变化提供了极好的背景。她将挖掘两个时期中每一个时期的一系列国内遗址，并检查家庭之间的财富/地位差异以及个别单位内活动的范围和空间分布。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的基本数据。它将阐明社会复杂性的发展，并有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Terence D'Altroy, MS Kirsten Olsen will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The goal of her project is to examine the relationship between the development of social complexity and organization of activities within individual household units. In recent years archaeologists have focused increasingly on household units. Remains of domestic structures are often abundant and readily identifiable within large sites and thus readily accessible to examination. Secondly it has become increasingly clear that even in complex state level societies most subsistence and manufacturing activities took place in households rather than temples or other ceremonial buildings and thus one can gain insight into broad social organization through study of the smallest fundamental units. A body of anthropological theory predicts that as societies grow complex, social roles become ore tightly defined and this has implications for within household organization. It has also been hypothesized that with increasing complexity inter-household stratification also occurs and that wealth and status differences emerge. MS Olsen will evaluate these predictions through the excavation a four sites in the Cachi Adentro region in the northern Argentina Andes. As the result of long term research in this region Dr. Terence D'Altroy and his colleagues have defined a prehistoric sequence which begins with early hunting and gathering groups and continues through Spanish conquest. During the Regional Development period (ca 1,000-1410 AD) succeeding groups were characterized by increasing levels of social complexity and this provides an excellent context for MS Olsen to examine the change in household organization over time. She will excavate a series of domestic sites from each of two time periods and examine both wealth/status differences between households and the range and spatial distribution of activities within individual units. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide basic data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed light on the development of social complexity and assist in training a promising young scientist.