Power, Craft Production, and Exchange in Southern Mesoamerica

中美洲南部的电力、工艺生产和交流

• 批准号: 0109952
• 负责人: Patricia Urban
• 金额: $ 4.17万
• 依托单位: Kenyon College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-07-01 至 2003-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0109952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Power; Craft; Production; Exchange; Southern

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Patricia Urban, EdwardSchortman, and Ms. Marne Ausec have worked to describe and explain changes inprehistoric power relations within the adjoining Naco and lower Cacaulapavalleys, Northwestern Honduras. The basic question has been, and remains,"How did a few come to rule the many?" Answering this deceptivelystraightforward query requires examining the ways in which local rulersmarshaled political and economic forces within their societies and forgedalliances with peers in neighboring realms. The hypothesis guiding thisresearch proposes that: 1. Rulers exercised dominion by monopolizing localaccess to imported commodities valued and needed by the general populace, aswell as locally produced items, such as ceramic vessels and stone tools; 2.Commoners surrendered their labor and loyalty to local notables in return foraccess to these goods; 3. Unwilling to go gently into dependence, commonersalso used their skills and immediately available resources to make as manyitems for their own use and trade as possible, thereby minimizing reliance onlocal lords; 4. This competition resulted in a population divided by thepower ndividuals, families, or factions could wield and the wealth they enjoyed.Work funded by the National Science Foundation in Naco, from 1990-1996, wasinstrumental in establishing this model; investigations pursued in the lowerCacaulapa valley from 1999-2000, also funded by the NSF, are crucial totesting these ideas. Survey of 7km2 in the lower Cacaulapa drainageidentified a major political capital, El Coyote, with over 340 prehistoricstructures covering 0.7km2. Excavation of 2,850m2 on and around 40 buildingsat El Coyote and in five rural sites revealed a history of occupation thatdiverged markedly from the expected. Specifically, emerging data patternssuggest that first, El Coyote came to prominence during the Late Classicperiod (AD 600-950; the site was founded as early as AD200), possibly as anoutpost of its larger Naco Valley contemporary, La Sierra. Second, ratherthan staying within La Sierra's shadow, El Coyote's rulers established theirindependence by AD 1000. Third, building on their new-found autonomy, lowerCacaulapa notables went on to fashion a realm that was growing in size andcomplexity, and acquiring goods from as far away as central Mexico andGuatemala's Pacific coast, between AD 1000-1300, when neighboring societies,including those in Naco, suffered profound declines. Assessing these preliminary interpretations requires further analyses of ceramics, stone tools, faunal and floral remains, as well as human skeletons, to be conducted with National Science Foundation support during May through December, 2001. These studies will focus on: 1. stylistic studies of artifacts, particularly ceramics, designed to help date deposits, and infer the external connections enjoyed by lower Cacaulapa residents through time; 2. technological analyses aimed at identifying the range and scale of specialized production activities in which residents of El Coyote and its hinterland engaged; 3. functional studies aimed at reconstructing changes in patterns of consumption and production across time and space; 4. distributional assessments, to test for artifact patterns suggestive of wealth and power differences; 5. examination of skeletal remains to describe demographic processes as well as stresses (for example, dietary deficiencies, injuries, physical changes from movements unique to certain occupations) to which lower Cacaulapa populations were heir. The planned work is crucial to writing lower Cacaulapa valley prehistory and comparing the ways in which political and economic processes were manipulated there and within other ancient states. The research applies not just to Honduras, or even the ancient New World, but to any society in which those seeking power tried to alter their societies, while others resisted domination.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Patricia Urban博士、EdwardSchortman博士和Marne Ausec女士致力于描述和解释洪都拉斯西北部毗邻的纳科和下卡考拉帕瓦利地区史前权力关系的变化。最基本的问题一直是，现在仍然是：“少数人是如何统治多数人的？”要回答这个貌似直截了当的问题，就需要研究地方统治者如何巧妙地处理社会中的政治和经济力量，以及如何与邻国的同龄人结成联盟。指导这项研究的假说提出：1.尺子通过垄断当地获得普通民众有价值和需要的进口商品以及当地生产的商品，如陶瓷器皿和石器来行使统治权；2.普通人为了获得这些商品，把他们的劳动和忠诚拱手让给当地的知名人士；3.不愿温和地依赖，普通人还利用他们的技能和立即可用的资源，尽可能多地制造供自己使用和交易的物品，从而将对当地领主的依赖降至最低；4.这种竞争导致人口被个人、家庭或派系能够行使的权力和他们享有的财富所分裂。1990-1996年由国家科学基金会在纳科资助的工作对建立这种模型起到了重要作用；1999-2000年在卡考拉帕河谷进行的调查对检验这些想法至关重要。对Cacaulapa下游7平方公里的调查发现，El Coyote是一个主要的政治首都，有340多座史前建筑，占地0.7平方公里。对El Coyote的40栋建筑和5个农村遗址进行的2850平方米的挖掘显示，占领历史与预期明显不同。具体地说，新出现的数据模式表明，首先，El Coyote在古典晚期(公元600-950；该遗址最早建立于公元200年)出现，可能是作为其更大的纳科谷当代遗址La Sierra的前哨。其次，郊狼的尺子在公元1000年建立了他们的独立，而不是留在拉塞拉的阴影下。第三，在新获得的自治权的基础上，地位较低的卡考拉帕名流继续建立一个规模和复杂性不断增长的王国，并在公元1000-1300年间从遥远的墨西哥中部和危地马拉太平洋海岸采购商品，当时邻国社会，包括纳科的那些社会，遭受了严重的衰落。评估这些初步解释需要在2001年5月至12月期间，在国家科学基金会的支持下，对陶瓷、石器、动物和花卉遗骸以及人类骨骼进行进一步分析。这些研究将侧重于：1.对文物，特别是陶器的文体研究，旨在帮助确定存款的年代，并推断下卡考拉帕居民通过时间享受的外部联系；2.旨在确定El Coyote及其腹地居民从事的专门生产活动的范围和规模的技术分析；3.旨在重建消费和生产模式跨时间和空间变化的功能研究；4.分配评估，以测试暗示财富和权力差异的文物模式；5.对骨骼遗骸进行检查，以描述人口统计过程和压力(例如，饮食不足、受伤、某些职业特有的运动引起的身体变化)，较低的卡考拉帕人是继承人。计划中的工作对于写下卡考拉帕山谷的史前史，比较那里和其他古代国家操纵政治和经济进程的方式是至关重要的。这项研究不仅适用于洪都拉斯，甚至适用于古老的新大陆，也适用于任何一个社会，在这个社会中，那些寻求权力的人试图改变自己的社会，而其他人则抵制统治。