Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Soconusco Formative Project

在Richard Burger博士的指导下，Robert rosenwig先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将继续在位于墨西哥恰帕斯州南太平洋海岸的Soconusco的Cuauhtemoc地区进行考古定居调查。该地区尤其重要，因为它包括中美洲最早的定居社区，以及大约公元前1550年至公元前650年之间出现的社会复杂性和政治等级制度的最早证据。索康纳斯科在中美洲也有与墨西哥湾沿岸奥尔梅克文明直接互动的最好证据，奥尔梅克文明是该地区的第一个文明。一项行人调查将系统地覆盖50平方公里，并绘制出整个景观中不断变化的政治组织。这项调查将利用现有的香蕉灌溉沟，提供大面积的准确地下信息。有了可靠的地表-地下对应关系，聚落分布的记录将具有一定程度的可信度，这是区域地面调查常常无法做到的。权力和等级制度可以说是人类学和大多数其他社会科学研究的最基本的问题。解释几个世纪和几千年来社会政治等级制度的出现是一项非常适合考古学的工作。社会科学家研究当代背景下不平等权力关系的结构和动态。然而，这些学者通常局限于几十年的时间跨度，或者在几个世纪的历史文献的帮助下。考古学家处于一个独特的位置，可以探索渗透到现代生活方方面面的制度化等级制度的起源。罗森维希先生的研究将追踪近一千年来考特莫克调查区社会政治复杂性的发展，并将有助于确定当地精英与居住在墨西哥墨西哥湾沿岸的奥尔梅克同行之间关系的本质。Soconusco的社会政治复杂性是否因为与墨西哥湾沿岸的塔巴斯科和韦拉克鲁斯的奥尔梅克人接触而合并？墨西哥湾沿岸的奥尔梅克人真的入侵了索康纳斯科吗？或者，在形成的中美洲社会模型中是否过分强调了墨西哥湾沿岸的影响？这些相互竞争的假设围绕着“奥尔梅克视界”的本质，并努力理解早期和中期形成社会以及中美洲遥远地区之间关系的本质。利用现代灌溉沟渠和缺乏后期占用，拟议的调查将在区域范围内提供可靠的人口变化。本研究的结果将进一步加深我们对Soconusco社会政治复杂性出现过程中地方和区域间过程之间关系的理解。这项研究在跨文化方面也具有重要意义，因为中美洲是世界上少数几个独立出现社会政治复杂性的地区之一，而Soconusco包含了最早发生这种情况的一些社会。罗森维希先生的研究将记录早期社会政治复杂性出现的方式，也将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Richard Burger, Mr. Robert Rosenswig will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will continue his archaeological settlement survey in the Cuauhtemoc zone of the Soconusco, located on the southern Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico. The region is particularly significant as it includes some of the first sedentary communities in Mesoamerica and the earliest evidence of emergent social complexity and political hierarchy between approximately 1550 and 650 BC. The Soconusco also has the best evidence in Mesoamerica of direct interaction with the Gulf Coast Olmec - the first civilization the region. A pedestrian survey will systematically cover 50 sq km and map changing political organization across the landscape. This survey will take advantage of existing trenches dug for banana irrigation to provide accurate subsurface information over a large area. With reliable surface-subsurface correspondence, the distribution of settlements will be documented with a degree of confidence not often possible with regional surface survey. Power and hierarchy are arguably the most fundamental issues addressed by anthropology and most other social sciences. Explaining the emergence of sociopolitical hierarchy over centuries and millennia is a job ideally suited to archaeology. Social scientists study the structure and dynamics of unequal power relations in contemporary contexts. However, these scholars are generally limited to a temporal breadth of decades, or with the help of historical documents a few centuries. Archaeologists are in a unique position to explore the origins of the institutionalized hierarchy that permeates every aspect of modern life. Mr. Rosenswig's research will track the development of sociopolitical complexity in the Cuauhtemoc survey zone over nearly a millennia and will help to determine the nature of relations between local elites and their Olmec counterparts who resided in Mexico's Gulf Coast. Did sociopolitical complexity in the Soconusco coalesce as a result of contact with the Gulf Coast Olmec of Tabasco and Veracruz? Did the Gulf Coast Olmec actually make incursions into the Soconusco? Alternatively, is the impact of the Gulf Coast over-emphasized in models of Formative Mesoamerican society? These competing hypotheses revolve around the nature of an "Olmec Horizon" and strive to understand Early and Middle Formative society and the nature of relations between distant regions of Mesoamerica.Taking advantage of modern irrigation ditches and lack of later period occupation, the proposed survey will provide reliable demographic changes at a regional scale. The results of this study will further our understanding of the relationship between local and interregional processes during the emergence of sociopolitical complexity in the Soconusco. This research is also significant cross-culturally as Mesoamerica is one of only a handful of areas in the world where sociopolitical complexity emerged independently and the Soconusco contains some of the earliest societies where this occurred. Mr. Rosenswig's research will document the manner in which incipient sociopolitical complexity emerged and will also assist in training a promising young scientist.