Decentralized Societies and the Development of Secondary States

去中心化社会和二级国家的发展

• 批准号: 0314407
• 负责人: Timothy Chevral
• 金额: $ 18.17万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-06-01 至 2007-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0314407&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Decentralized; Societies; Development; Secondary; States

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Tina Thurston will conduct three seasons of fieldwork in the Thy region of Denmark, where she studies the Iron Age period during which a state level society first emerged. Most archaeological studies focus on 'Primary' states, which develop spontaneously from less politically complex societies. Dr. Thurston is interested in a different process: states that develop from contact with and response to already existing states. Called 'Secondary' states, they usually arise from several pre-existing groups brought together by political leaders to create a single entity. Much less is known about this process, although it is more common, and parallels can be observed in historic times as empires and 'super-powers' interact with peripheral groups, spawning social, economic and political shifts. Through comparison of such individual cases, insight is gained into the social processes underlying emergent political complexity. The early Danish state is also unusual because of its 'corporate' nature, in which a type of primitive democracy was favored, and extreme differentiation between leaders and followers was suppressed while labor, food production, social groups and even rulership were controlled through broad integrative ritual and ideological means. Denmark's corporate nature means that palaces, monuments, temples and other markers of political power are unavailable for use in studying state development. Thus, with prior NSF support, Dr. Thurston developed a methodology for reconstructing the organization of such differently-organized states, which relies not on examining one site, but on determining trends and processes in regions to understand who controlled important institutional structures: market economy, networks of central places, agrarian production, military command, and religious practice. During state-building, control of these will ultimately shift from local, pre-state leaders to central rulers. How this occurs -- peacefully or violently, quickly or slowly, for example -- gives insight into central rulers' strategies and the level of cooperation or resistance they receive from those incorporated into a new polity. To this end, Dr. Thurston has been studying a sub-region that during the state-building era underwent changes typifying processes seen in the greater nation. During four previous seasons of NSF supported fieldwork, full coverage survey identified over 250 sites using soil phosphate testing and associated surface artifact distribution (indicators of human occupation), and 106 test excavations were conducted at 36 locales to date and reconstruct forms of settlement, determine village social organization and economic activity, and how this changed over time. Based on data collected at a military levy site, economic centers, elite compounds, and villages with evidence of unusual agrarian expansion and forced migration, a number of marked changes in institutional control are indicated, accompanied by violent opposition to growing state dominion over local affairs. Dr. Thurston will now excavate several sites to answer the questions of when, how, and under what circumstances state intervention in local systems occurred. At the same time, she will continue to train both undergraduate and graduate students, and hopes to enhance discourse on the modern era, where the making/breaking of states and the forced resettlement of populations has become a common occurrence.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，蒂娜·瑟斯顿博士将在丹麦的Thy地区进行三个季节的实地考察，在那里她研究铁器时代，在此期间，一个国家级的社会首次出现。 大多数考古学研究集中在“原始”国家，这些国家是从政治上不太复杂的社会自发发展起来的。瑟斯顿博士感兴趣的是一个不同的过程：从接触和反应已经存在的状态发展的状态。这些国家被称为“次级”国家，通常由政治领导人召集的几个预先存在的团体组成，以创建一个单一的实体。关于这一过程的了解要少得多，尽管它更常见，并且在历史时期可以观察到帝国和“超级大国”与外围群体相互作用，产生社会，经济和政治变化。通过对这些个案的比较，深入了解了政治复杂性背后的社会过程。早期的丹麦国家也是不寻常的，因为它的“公司”性质，其中一种原始的民主是有利的，领导人和追随者之间的极端分化受到抑制，而劳动，食品生产，社会团体，甚至统治权都通过广泛的综合仪式和意识形态手段来控制。丹麦的公司性质意味着宫殿、纪念碑、寺庙和其他政治权力的标志无法用于研究国家发展。因此，在NSF的支持下，瑟斯顿博士开发了一种方法来重建这种不同组织的国家的组织，这种方法不依赖于检查一个地点，而是依赖于确定地区的趋势和过程，以了解谁控制着重要的制度结构：市场经济，中心地区网络，农业生产，军事指挥和宗教实践。 在国家建设期间，对这些的控制最终将从地方的、前国家领导人转移到中央统治者。 这是如何发生的-例如，是和平还是暴力，是快是慢-让我们深入了解中央统治者的战略，以及他们从那些被纳入新政体的人那里得到的合作或抵制的程度。为此，瑟斯顿博士一直在研究一个次区域，在国家建设时代经历了典型的过程中看到更大的国家的变化。 在NSF支持的前四个季节的实地调查中，全覆盖调查使用土壤磷酸盐测试和相关的表面人工制品分布（人类居住的指标）确定了250多个地点，迄今为止在36个地点进行了106次测试挖掘，重建了定居形式，确定了村庄的社会组织和经济活动，以及随着时间的推移如何变化。 根据在一个军事征兵点、经济中心、精英大院和村庄收集的数据，有证据表明不寻常的土地扩张和被迫迁移，表明制度控制发生了一些显著变化，伴随着暴力反对国家对地方事务的自治领。 瑟斯顿博士现在将挖掘几个地点，以回答何时，如何以及在什么情况下国家干预当地系统发生的问题。与此同时，她将继续培养本科生和研究生，并希望加强对现代时代的话语，在那里国家的建立/破坏和人口的被迫重新安置已成为司空见惯的事情。