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，迈克尔·惠伦博士和保罗·明尼斯博士将在大卡萨斯地区进行为期三个季节的考古田野工作。虽然卡萨斯位于墨西哥奇瓦瓦的西北部，但它是最著名的普韦布洛风格文化之一，来自邻近的美国西南部。在其鼎盛时期(约公元1200-1450年)，卡萨斯·格兰斯被描述为普埃布隆世界最大、最复杂的史前社区。它还被认为是该地区主要互动系统之一的中心，也是连接中美洲和美国西南部文化的纽带。尽管它被公认为北美洲史前晚期少数土著复杂社会之一，但对其规模、结构、中央集权水平和运作模式的大多数方面的研究都是如此之少。惠伦博士和明尼斯自以来在吉娃娃所做的工作就是为了纠正这种情况，首先进行了大规模的聚落模式调查，最近又对选定的地点进行了挖掘。与过去25年来盛行的最初和极具影响力的解释形成对比的是，最近的工作表明，大家庭政体并不像所说的那样高度集中，而是存在于社会政治复杂性的中等水平。它无法对其近邻实施统一的控制。更有可能的是，在一个政治不稳定的背景下，它代表着一种不那么全面、不那么集中的非常规控制局面。这一想法是从调查和有限的挖掘数据中尽可能地发展出来的。它的进一步解释需要关于大卡萨斯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边远定居点进行挖掘来解决。在Casas Granes，显而易见的是一套涉及经济、名牌商品和仪式的领导力套餐。惠伦和明尼斯博士将追踪这些属性在周围地区的扩散程度。

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.