Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Soconusco Formative Project

博士论文改进补助金：Soconusco 形成项目

• 批准号: 0210997
• 负责人: Richard Burger
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-05-15 至 2003-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0210997&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Soconusco

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 However, these scholars are generally limited to a temporal breadth of decades, or with the help of historical documents a few centuries.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.

在Richard Burger博士的指导下，Robert Rosenswig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南太平洋海岸的Soconusco的Cuauhtemoc地区进行考古定居点调查。该地区具有特别重要的意义，因为它包括中美洲最早的一些定居社区，以及大约公元前1550年至公元前650年间出现的社会复杂性和政治等级的最早证据。Soconusco还拥有中美洲与墨西哥湾沿岸奥尔梅克直接互动的最好证据，奥尔梅克是该地区的第一个文明。一项步行调查将系统地覆盖50平方公里，并绘制出整个景观中不断变化的政治组织图。这项调查将利用现有的香蕉灌溉沟渠，在大范围内提供准确的地下信息。有了可靠的地表-地下对应，定居点的分布将以区域地面调查通常不可能达到的信心程度被记录下来。权力和等级制度可以说是人类学和大多数其他社会科学所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，这些学者一般局限于几十年的时间跨度，或者借助几个世纪的历史文献。考古学家在探索渗透到现代生活方方面面的制度化等级制度的起源方面处于独特的地位。罗森斯维希的研究将追踪库特莫克调查区近千年来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湾沿岸的奥尔梅克人之间关系的性质。由于与塔巴斯科和韦拉克鲁斯的墨西哥湾沿岸奥尔梅克的接触，索科努斯科地区的社会政治复杂性是否融合在一起？墨西哥湾沿岸的奥尔梅克真的入侵了索科努斯科吗？或者，在形成中美洲社会的模型中，墨西哥湾沿岸的影响是否被过分强调？这些相互矛盾的假设围绕着“奥尔梅克地平线”的性质，并努力了解早期和中期形成的社会以及中美洲遥远地区之间关系的性质。利用现代灌溉沟渠和没有后期占领的优势，拟议的调查将在区域范围内提供可靠的人口统计变化。这项研究的结果将进一步加深我们对Soconusco社会政治复杂性出现期间局部和区域间进程之间的关系的理解。这项研究也具有重要的跨文化意义，因为中美洲是世界上少数几个社会政治复杂性独立出现的地区之一，而Soconusco包含了一些发生这种情况的最早的社会。罗森斯威格的研究将记录早期社会政治复杂性出现的方式，也将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。