The Articulation of Political Strategies and Regional Structure in the Teuchitlan Tradition of Western Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，克里斯托弗·比克曼博士将在墨西哥西部哈利斯科州进行一季的考古实地考察。他将重点关注与Teuchitlan传统有关的遗址，该传统跨越了大约公元前300年到公元900年的1200年时间。这些遗址的特点是公共建筑的独特形式，这些特征的陶瓷模型表明它们被用于宴会活动、婚礼和仪式目的。与这些建筑相关的还有专门的车间（生产黑曜石珠宝等物品），以及竖井和墓室。在一个这样的竖井墓的挖掘中发现了各种各样的进口祭品，表明这是一个精英的葬礼。在其历史进程中，Teuchitlan政体在规模和政治集中化程度上都有所不同。比克曼博士指出，对精英象征的重视程度也各不相同。在集权程度最高的时期，与精英阶层相关的物品的证据相对较少，但在中央控制似乎被派系对抗所取代的其他时期，这种标记很常见。比克曼博士认为，群体间的竞争刺激了精英地位申请者的出现，因为个人争夺政治控制权和追随者。一旦建立了结构化的层次结构，就不再需要这样的地位标记了。这种解释与普遍接受的理论相矛盾，因此引起了相当大的兴趣。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，这一模式（迄今为止是基于初步证据）将被详细研究。在研究的第一阶段，比克曼博士和他的同事将测试挖掘一些不同时期的遗址，然后他将分析收集到的物品。一个年代敏感的陶瓷序列对于正确地确定遗址是必要的，从地层安全的环境中挖掘出来的陶器将被分析以提供时间敏感的标记。尽管它表现出了中美洲许多其他地区特有的社会复杂性，但人们对西墨西哥的史前史知之甚少。比克曼博士的研究不仅将揭示分层社会发展背后的机制，而且还将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Christopher Beekman will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in the Jalisco region of Western Mexico. He will focus on sites which relate to the Teuchitlan Tradition which spans a 1,200 year period from ca. 300 BC to 900 AD. Sites are characterized by a distinctive form of public architecture and ceramic models of these features indicate they were used for feasting activities, marriage ceremonies and ritual purposes. Also associated with these structures are specialized workshops (which produced, among other items, obsidian jewelry), and shaft and chamber tombs. Excavations at one such shaft tomb yielded a wide variety of imported offerings suggesting an elite burial. Over the course of its history the Teuchitlan polity varied in both size and in degree of political centralization. Dr. Beekman notes that the emphasis on elites symbols varies as well. During the period of maximum centralization evidence of items associated with an elite class are relatively rare but in other periods when central control appears replaced by factional confrontation such markers are common. Dr. Beekman suggests that inter group competition spurs the emergence of claimants to elite status as individuals vie for political control and followers. Once a structured hierarchy is established such status markers are no longer necessary. This interpretation contradicts commonly accepted theory and therefore has generated considerable interest. With National Science Foundation support this pattern, which to date is based on preliminary evidence, will be examined in detail. In this first stage of the research Dr. Beekman and his colleagues will test excavate a number of sites which sample different time periods and he will then analyze the objects collected. A chronologically sensitive ceramic sequence is necessary to order sites correctly and the pottery excavated from stratigraphically secure contexts will be analyzed to provide time sensitive markers. Although it exhibited the social complexity which characterized many other parts of Middle America, the prehistory of Western Mexico is poorly known. Dr. Beekman's research will not only shed new light on the mechanisms which underlie the development of stratified societies but will also provide data of interest to many archaeologists.