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

在William H. Rodrigo Narcarte先生将在委内瑞拉进行考古和民族历史研究，为他的博士论文收集数据。 他的主要目标是更好地了解复杂的人类社会的性质和发展，重点是一个令人困惑的美洲原住民的例子。 加勒比地区的文化长期以来一直被认为是人类学家所说的“酋长领地”的绝佳例子，酋长领地是介于简单的部落或部落与复杂的州政府之间的政治制度。 事实上，人们认为“酋长国”代表了人类对复杂社会组织的第一次实验。 因此，如果我们要理解社会复杂性的演变，就必须研究和理解酋长制，加勒比地区提供了一个利用考古学和民族史的特殊实验室。 委内瑞拉的乌纳雷河流域是一个重要的地区，可能提供了一条河流亚马逊低地和加勒比海岸之间的移民通道。 它可以阐明关于亚马逊和加勒比文化地区之间社会复杂性差异的辩论，但早期对委内瑞拉乌纳雷河文化的描述却奇怪地相互矛盾。 16世纪和17世纪早期的编年史家描述了复杂的加勒比社会。 但是18世纪的编年史只描述了像加勒比卡里纳这样简单的文化。 如何理解这一点？ 如果这些描述被认为是历史上准确的，那么就会引发关于社会经历文化崩溃的条件的问题。 或者，这些描述是否反映了欧洲人看待和描述“他者”的方式的变化，以及，也许，作为改变欧洲人的看法和帐户的政治目标的变化？明确解决这一问题的方法是将民族历史记录与考古资料进行比较。 纳夫利特完成了对编年史的研究。 在NSF的资助下，他将在Unare凹陷进行第一次系统的考古调查，采用适合植被茂密环境的横断面和铲测试坑策略。 该调查旨在揭示社会复杂性的物质相关性以及文化简单化的物质相关性。 研究结果将揭示乌纳雷盆地社会复杂性的历史，以及它们对欧洲哲学和政治变化的影响，这些变化影响了当地人及其社会条件的概念化。 论文还将为委内瑞拉过去更全面的考古调查奠定宝贵的基础。

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.