The Articulation of Political Strategies and Regional Structure in the Teuchitlan Tradition of Western Mexico

墨西哥西部图奇特兰传统中政治战略和区域结构的表述

• 批准号: 9817697
• 负责人: Christopher Beekman
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: University Enterprises Corporation at CSUSB
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-08-01 至 2001-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9817697&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Articulation; Political; Strategies; Regional; Structure

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Christopher Beekman will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in the Jalisco region of Western Mexico. He will focus on sites which relate to the Teuchitlan Tradition which spans a 1,200 year period from ca. 300 BC to 900 AD. Sites are characterized by a distinctive form of public architecture and ceramic models of these features indicate they were used for feasting activities, marriage ceremonies and ritual purposes. Also associated with these structures are specialized workshops (which produced, among other items, obsidian jewelry), and shaft and chamber tombs. Excavations at one such shaft tomb yielded a wide variety of imported offerings suggesting an elite burial. Over the course of its history the Teuchitlan polity varied in both size and in degree of political centralization. Dr. Beekman notes that the emphasis on elites symbols varies as well. During the period of maximum centralization evidence of items associated with an elite class are relatively rare but in other periods when central control appears replaced by factional confrontation such markers are common. Dr. Beekman suggests that inter group competition spurs the emergence of claimants to elite status as individuals vie for political control and followers. Once a structured hierarchy is established such status markers are no longer necessary. This interpretation contradicts commonly accepted theory and therefore has generated considerable interest. With National Science Foundation support this pattern, which to date is based on preliminary evidence, will be examined in detail. In this first stage of the research Dr. Beekman and his colleagues will test excavate a number of sites which sample different time periods and he will then analyze the objects collected. A chronologically sensitive ceramic sequence is necessary to order sites correctly and the pottery excavated from stratigraphically secure contexts will be analyzed to provide time sensitive markers. Although it exhibited the social complexity which characterized many other parts of Middle America, the prehistory of Western Mexico is poorly known. Dr. Beekman's research will not only shed new light on the mechanisms which underlie the development of stratified societies but will also provide data of interest to many archaeologists.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，克里斯托弗·比克曼博士将在墨西哥西部的哈利斯科地区进行一个季节的考古实地考察。他将专注于与Teuchitlan传统有关的网站，该传统跨越了1,200年的时间。公元前300年至公元900年。遗址的特点是公共建筑的独特形式，这些特征的陶瓷模型表明它们用于宴会活动，婚姻仪式和仪式目的。与这些建筑相关的还有专门的作坊（生产黑曜石珠宝等物品），以及竖井和墓室墓。在一个这样的竖井墓中发现了各种各样的进口产品，这表明这是一个精英墓葬。在其历史进程中，特乌奇特兰政体在规模和政治集中程度上各不相同。比克曼博士指出，对精英象征的重视程度也各不相同。在中央集权最高的时期，与精英阶层相关的物品的证据相对罕见，但在中央控制似乎被派系对抗所取代的其他时期，这些标记是常见的。比克曼博士认为，群体间的竞争刺激了精英地位的出现，因为个人争夺政治控制权和追随者。一旦建立了结构化的层次结构，就不再需要这样的状态标记。这种解释与普遍接受的理论相矛盾，因此引起了相当大的兴趣。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，我们将详细研究这种迄今为止基于初步证据的模式。在研究的第一阶段，比克曼博士和他的同事们将测试挖掘一些不同时期的遗址，然后他将分析收集到的物品。一个时间敏感的陶瓷序列是必要的，以正确地排序网站和陶器出土的地层安全的背景下将进行分析，以提供时间敏感的标记。 虽然它展示了中美洲许多其他地区的社会复杂性，但墨西哥西部的史前史却鲜为人知。比克曼博士的研究不仅将揭示分层社会发展的机制，而且还将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。