Collaborative: Continuity and Change in Community Organization in the Casas Grandes Region, in Chihuahua, Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Michael Whalen博士和Paul Minnis博士将在Casas Grandes地区进行三个季节的考古实地考察。虽然位于墨西哥西北部的奇瓦瓦州，卡萨斯等级是普韦布洛风格的文化，是最有名的从邻近的美国西南部在其远地点（约。公元1200年至1450年）卡萨斯格兰德被描述为普韦布洛世界中最大和最复杂的史前社区。它被进一步认为是该地区主要互动系统之一的中心，也是中美洲文化和美国西南部文化之间的联系。尽管它被公认为史前晚期北美少数几个土著复杂社会之一，但卡萨斯大政体的研究很少，其规模，结构，集中化水平和运作模式的大部分方面仍然模糊不清。自1989年以来，惠伦博士和明尼斯在奇瓦瓦州的工作就是为了纠正这种情况，首先是进行大规模的定居模式调查，最近是在选定的地点进行挖掘。与过去25年来流行的原始和高度影响力的解释相反，最近的研究认为大卡萨政体并不像人们所说的那样高度集中，而是存在于社会政治复杂性的中间水平。它无法对其近邻施加统一的控制。更有可能的是，这是一种在政治不稳定的情况下，不那么全面、不那么集中的非正规控制局面。这个想法是尽可能从调查和有限的挖掘数据中发展出来的。进一步的解释需要关于卡萨斯格兰德地区中心如何以及在多大程度上影响其邻国的数据。这个复杂的问题将通过在外围定居点进行挖掘来解决。在卡萨斯格兰德，明显的是一个涉及经济、声望商品和仪式的领导包。惠伦博士和明尼斯博士将追踪这些属性在周围地区传播的程度。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Michael Whalen and Paul Minnis will conduct three seasons of archaeological fieldwork in the Casas Grandes region. Although located in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico, Casas Grades is one of the pueblo-style cultures that are best known from the adjacent southwestern U.S. At its apogee (ca. A.D. 1200-1450) Casas Grandes has been characterized as the largest and most complex prehistoric community in the puebloan world. It is further recognized both as the center of one of the major interaction systems of the region and as a link between the cultures of Mesoamerica and those of the U.S. Southwest. Despite its acknowledged status as one of late prehistoric North America's few indigenous complex societies, the Casas Grandes polity has been so little studied that most aspects of its size, structure, level of centralization, and mode of operation remain obscure. Dr. Whalen's and Minnis' work in Chihuahua since 1989 has been designed to remedy this situation, first with a large settlement pattern survey and more recently with a program of excavation at selected sites. In contrast to the original and highly influential interpretation which has prevailed for the last 25 years, recent work agues that the Casas Grandes polity was not, as had been argued, highly centralized, but rather existed at an intermediate level of sociopolitical complexity. It was not able to exert uniform control over its near neighbors. More likely it represents a less comprehensive, less centralized situation of irregular control in a politically unstable context. This idea has been developed as far as possible from the survey and limited excavation data available. Its further explication requires data on how and to what extent the regional center of Casas Grandes impacted its neighbors. This complex question will be approached through excavation at outlying settlements. Apparent at Casas Grandes is a leadership package that involved economics, prestige goods, and ritual. Drs Whalen and Minnis will trace the extent to which these attributes spread over the surrounding areas.