Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Reevaluating the Social Complexity of the Palenque Culture: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Survey in Eastern Venuzela

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Under the direction of Dr. William H. Isbell, Mr. Rodrigo Nararrete will conduct archaeological and ethnohistorical research in Venezuela, collecting data for his doctoral dissertation. His primary objective is to gain a better understanding of the nature and development of complex human societies, focusing on a perplexing Native American example. Cultures of the Caribbean region have long been recognized as superb examples of what anthropologists call "chiefdoms," political systems intermediate between simple bands or tribes, and complex state governments. Indeed, it is believed that the "chiefdom" represents humanity's first experiment with complex social organization. Consequently, if we are to understand the evolution of social complexity, chiefdoms must be studied and comprehended, and the Caribbean offers an exceptional laboratory using archaeology and ethnohistory. Venezuela's Unare River Basin is an important area that probably provided an avenue of migration between riverine Amazonian lowlands and the Caribbean Coast. It could shed light on debates about differences in social complexity between the Amazonian and the Caribbean culture areas, but early descriptions of the cultures occupying Venezuela's Unare River are curiously contradictory. Sixteenth and early seventeenth century chroniclers describe complex Carib societies. But eighteenth century chronicles describe only simple cultures like the Cariban Karinas. How is this to be understood? Should these descriptions be considered historically accurate, fostering questions about the conditions in which societies experience cultural collapse. Alternatively, do these descriptions reflect changes in the way Europeans viewed and described the "other," as well, perhaps, as changes in the political goals that colored European perceptions and accounts?The way to definitively resolve this is to compare ethnohistorical accounts with archaeological information. Navarrete has completed a study of the chronicles. Funded by NSF he will conduct the first systematic archaeological survey in the Unare Depression, employing a transects-and-shovel-test-pits strategy appropriate for heavily vegetated environment. The survey is designed to reveal material correlates of social complexity as well as materials correlates of cultural simplification. The results will reveal the history of social complexity in the Unare Basin, and their implications for the ways changes in European philosophy and politics influenced conceptualizations of natives and their social conditions. The dissertation will also establish valuable foundations for more comprehensive archaeological investigations of the Venezuelan past.