Dissertation: Regional Settlement Patterns and Social Complexity in the Cinti Valley, Bolivia

在Marc Bermann博士的指导下，Claudia Rivera-Casanovas女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将对玻利维亚的辛蒂山谷进行考古调查。这项研究的目的是深入了解史前安第斯社会的特点，这一地区是本土动植物驯化和复杂社会发展的温床。虽然最著名的是印加，但这个文明只是千年来这类实体序列中的最后一个。考古学家注意到，在旧世界和新世界的许多地方都独立地发生了类似的过程，并寻找潜在的组织原则，这些原则解释了曾经小规模的农业群体转变为更大更复杂的社会。流行的理论强调社会等级制度的发展和权力在有限数量的个人手中的巩固。虽然这一过程可能确实发生在许多地方，包括安第斯山脉本身的部分地区，但早期西班牙定居者记录的一些民族历史资料以及考古资料本身表明，情况更为复杂，相对大量的个人可以成功地融入运作良好的社会和经济实体，而无需发展复杂的中央控制机制。有人认为，在辛提河谷等地区，基本上独立的基于亲属关系的团体发展了合作方法，这种方法不涉及由少数人控制基本资源。里维拉-卡萨诺瓦斯女士将收集考古数据，重建史前社会制度的基本方面，以验证这一想法。她将对150平方公里的区域进行系统的100%调查，注意场地的大小和分布，并收集表面材料。她还将进行流域分析，以确定人口分布与潜在农业生产力之间的关系。根据家庭规模和内容的变化，她将重建地位分化和政治集中的程度。它将提供有关鲜为人知的安第斯地区的数据，从而产生许多考古学家感兴趣的信息。它将揭示导致社会复杂性的过程，并有助于培养有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Marc Bermann, MS Claudia Rivera-Casanovas will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct an archaeological survey of the Cinti Valley of Bolivia. The goal of the research is to gain insight into the range of variation which characterized prehistoric Andean societies., This region served as a hearth for both the domestication of indigenous plants and animals and for the development of complex societies. While best known for the Inca, this civilization was only the last in a millennium long sequence of such entities. Archaeologists have noted that a similar process occurred independently in many parts of both the Old and New Worlds and have searched for the underlying organizing principles which explain the transformation of once small scale agricultural groups into larger more complex societies. The prevailing theories emphasize the development of social hierarchies and the consolidation of power in the hands of a limited number of individuals. While such a process probably did occur in many places, including parts of the Andes itself, some ethnohistoric data recorded by early Spanish settlers as well as archaeological information itself, indicate that the situation is more complicated and that relatively large numbers of individuals can be successfully integrated into functioning social and economic entities without the development of elaborate mechanisms of centralized control. It has been suggested that in regions such as the Cinti Valley essentially independent kinship-based groups developed methods of collaboration which did not involve control by limited numbers of people over essential resources. MS Rivera-Casanovas will collect archaeological data to reconstruct essential aspects of the prehistoric social system to test this idea. She will conduct a systematic 100% survey of an area of 150 square km., note the size and distribution of sites and collect surface materials. She will also carry out a catchment analysis to determine the relationship between population distribution and potential agricultural productivity. Based on variation in household size and contents she will reconstruct the extent of status differentiation and political centralization.This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data on a poorly known Andean region and thus generate information of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on the processes which led to social complexity and contribute to the training of a promising young scientist.