Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cranial Vault Modification in the Pre-Columbian Andes

有效传达有关个人社会地位的信息的能力是建立种族认同和社会等级制度的基础。在征服前的美洲原住民中，头顶改造的习俗很普遍，它永久性地改变儿童的头部形状，以创造社会差异。对这一做法的分析有可能为史前社会关系的各个方面提供重要的见解，这些方面是其他任何来源都无法获得的。在这篇博士论文研究中，从广阔的时间和空间角度分析了前哥伦布安第斯山脉颅顶改造与健康和社会组织的相关性。这项工作集中于颅骨改变的社会功能，无论是在群体内还是群体之间，以及它与安第斯山脉社会复杂性的上升的关系。这项研究的目标是将物理、人类学和考古学数据整合到一项分析中，以澄清推动身体改造的社会因素。收藏品经过精心挑选，涵盖了广泛的社会制度。这项研究将包括对美国和智利博物馆收藏的2500多个来自安第斯山脉的前哥伦布时代头骨展示的颅顶改造进行的大规模调查。分析中使用的方法遵循从人类骨骼遗骸中收集数据的标准中的建议。对来自不同文化背景的大量个体的颅骨改变进行分析，是检验有关导致社会分层社会发展的因素的假设的有力工具。生物考古方法的重点是重建人类的行为模式和健康状况，它提供了一种直接的手段，可以通过它来探索文化复杂性和不平等的生物学后果的理论。本研究所涉及的社会分化和文化复杂性问题，对于理解现代族群的社会关系具有重要意义。

The ability to effectively convey information about a person's social status is fundamental to the creation of ethnic identities and social hierarchies. The custom of cranial vault modification, permanently altering the head shape of children to create social distinctions, was widespread among Native Americans during the pre-conquest period. Analysis of this practice has the potential to provide important insights into aspects of prehistoric social relations that are available from no other source. In this Ph.D. dissertation research, the health and social organizational correlates of cranial vault modification are analyzed from a broad temporal and spatial perspective in the pre-Columbian Andes. This work focuses on the social functions of cranial modification, both within and between groups, and its relationship to the rise of social complexity in the Andes. The goal of the research is to integrate physical anthropological and archaeological data into an analysis that clarifies the social factors that motivate body modification. Collections were carefully selected to encompass a broad spectrum of social systems. The research will include a large-scale survey of the cranial vault modification exhibited by more than 2,500 pre-Columbian skulls from the Andes housed in museums in the United States and Chile. The methods used in the analysis follow the recommendations in the Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Analysis of cranial modification in a large number of individuals from a variety of cultural contexts is a powerful tool for testing hypotheses concerning the factors responsible for the development of socially stratified societies. The bioarchaeological approach, with its emphasis on the reconstruction of human behavior patterns and health status provides a direct means through which theories of cultural complexity and the biological consequences of inequality can be explored. The issues of social differentiation and cultural complexity addressed in this research have many implications for understanding the social relations of modern ethnic groups.