Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Archaeology of Culture Contact in Northern Honduras

基拉·布莱斯戴尔-斯隆女士将在罗斯玛丽·乔伊斯博士的指导下为她的博士论文收集数据。布莱斯戴尔-斯隆女士将继续在位于洪都拉斯乌鲁瓦河谷的兰乔·伊雷斯遗址进行考古发掘。从后古典时期（公元1400年）到晚期殖民时期（公元1800年），兰乔·伊雷斯一直被占领。如此长的占领跨度对于洪都拉斯殖民时期的土著遗址来说是不寻常的。这种长期的占领使考古学家能够通过对建筑、饮食、贸易商品和当地生产商品的差异的考古检查，探索与殖民时期生活接触的变化本质，这些差异既存在于特定时间的不同家庭之间，也存在于特定家庭内的几代人。该项目将采用“以代理人为中心”的方法来研究生活在Rancho Ires的个人和个人群体在传统社会和经济网络被破坏和新网络形成时所采用的各种不断变化的文化保留和身份创造策略。“以代理人为中心的方法”将把关键的焦点放在人们（作为个人和群体）在与他们无法控制的殖民大国互动时所做出的战略选择上。Rancho Ires提供了使用这种方法的理想情况。民族历史研究表明，在西班牙人到来之前，中美洲最肥沃的河谷之一乌鲁瓦山谷在区域间经济上具有相当大的重要性。当西班牙人到达并试图统治该地区时，他们遇到了敌意，冲突随之而来。这场抵抗的中心是一个叫基塔迈的小镇。根据民族历史和考古研究，Rancho Ires的考古遗址似乎是纪录片中确定的基塔迈镇。尽管他们最初拒绝西班牙人，西班牙人的统治造成了混乱，但文献和初步的考古证据表明，该定居点继续与西班牙人打交道。为了从以代理人为中心的角度来解决基塔梅社区居民所经历的跨文化接触的动态性质，该项目将重点关注国内群体。虽然有明确的以代理人为中心的方法来研究文化接触和殖民主义，但到目前为止，这些方法还没有植根于家庭考古学。然而，作为考古学家，家庭是我们可以识别离散合作群体的最佳尺度。然后，这些将与更大的视角联系起来，从而理解个人、群体、社区和文化之间的关系。这项研究的意义有三个方面。首先，它将提供数据来测试在家庭环境中以代理人为中心的接触和定植方法的有效性。其次，它将有助于具体的考古知识下记录的殖民设置在拉丁美洲。除了出于对历史的好奇，我们对土著人和欧洲人早期接触的了解也很重要，因为这些接触影响了发生这些接触的国家后来的许多发展。特别是在西属美洲，当前的种族关系、不平等制度、社会分层和许多身份问题都与最初的殖民环境有关。最后，作为一个博士项目，这个项目也将有助于培养一个有很大潜力的年轻科学家。

Ms. Kira Blaisdell-Sloan will collect data for her doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Rosemary Joyce. Ms. Blaisdell-Sloan will continue her archaeological excavations at the site of Rancho Ires, located in the Ulua River Valley, in Honduras. Rancho Ires was occupied continuously from the Postclassic (c. AD1400) to Late Colonial period (c. AD1800). This long occupational span is unusual for colonial period indigenous sites in Honduras. Such long term occupation allows archaeologists to explore the changing nature of contact to colonial period life through the archaeological examination of differences in architecture, diet, trade goods, and locally produced goods both between different households at a given time and within a given households over multiple generations. This project will use an "agent-centered" approach to examine the varied and changing strategies of cultural retention and identity creation employed by individuals and groups of individuals living at Rancho Ires as their traditional social and economic networks were disrupted and new ones formed.An "agent-centered approach" will place a critical focus upon the strategic choices that people (as individuals and groups) made as they interacted with colonial powers beyond their control. Rancho Ires provides an ideal situation to use such an approach. Ethnohistorical research indicates that the Ulua Valley, one of the most fertile river valleys in Central America, was of considerable inter-regional economic importance before the arrival of the Spanish. When the Spanish arrived and attempted to dominate the area, they were met with hostility, and conflict ensued. The seat of this resistance was a town called Quitamay. Based on ethnohistorical and archaeological research, the archaeological site of Rancho Ires appears to be the town identified in the documentary as Quitamay. Despite their initial rejection of the Spanish and the disruptions caused by Spanish domination, documentary and preliminary archaeological evidence indicates that the settlement continued to have dealings with the Spanish. To address the dynamic nature of the intercultural contact experienced by the residents of the community of Quitamay from an agent-centered perspective, this project will focus on the domestic group. Though there have been explicitly agent-centered approaches to culture contact and colonialism, as yet these have not been rooted in household archaeology. However, the household is the finest scale at which we, as archaeologists, can identify discrete cooperative groups. These then will be linked to larger perspectives, allowing for an understanding of the relationship between individuals, groups communities and cultures.The significance of this research is threefold. First, it will provide the data to test the efficacy of an agent-centered approach to contact and colonization in a household context. Second, it will contribute specific archaeological knowledge of under documented colonial settings in Latin America. Beyond being a matter of simple historical curiosity, our understanding of these early contacts between Aboriginal and European people is important because they shaped many subsequent developments in the countries in which they occurred. In Spanish America in particular, current race relations, systems of inequality, social stratification and many issues of identity relate back to the original colonial setting. Finally, as a doctoral project, this project will also aid in the training of a young scientist with great potential.