Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: The Origins and Impact of the Inca State: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of the Cuzco Valley

该项目是对秘鲁史前库斯科山谷人口的健康状况和人口亲和力的生物考古研究。尽管关于印加人的信息丰富，但他们国家的起源仍然不清楚。在拟议的研究中，长期以来关于印加人地理起源的假设将通过分析颅顶变化和骨骼和牙齿特征来检验。古病理学数据将用于记录日益增加的社会政治复杂性对健康的影响。通过结合身体、人类学和殡葬数据，这项研究将为印加国家的出现和发展提供新的线索。这项研究的学术价值在于，它将提供有关印加的起源及其向史前安第斯山脉最大帝国扩张的数据。这项研究还将揭示印加国家和早期蒂瓦纳库国家之间的关系。病理和创伤分析将提供关于国家对健康的影响和战争在国家形成中的作用的关键信息。此外，通过增加来自整个安第斯地区的分析骨骼收藏的不断增长的数据库，这项研究将帮助生物考古学家获得更广泛的视角，了解国家级社会对其控制下当地人口生活条件的影响。这项研究的更广泛影响包括它对研究生培训和教育以及促进国际科学合作发展的贡献。最后，这项研究在秘鲁的传播将有助于提高土著对印加文化成就的兴趣。

This project is a bioarchaeological study of the health status and population affinities of the prehistoric Cuzco Valley population of Peru. Despite the wealth of information on the Inca, the origin of their state remains obscure. In the proposed research, longstanding hypotheses concerning the geographic origins of the Inca will be tested through analyses of cranial vault modification and skeletal and dental traits. Paleopathological data will be used to document the health consequences of increasing sociopolitical complexity. By combining physical anthropological and mortuary data, this study will shed new light on the emergence and development of the Inca state.The intellectual merits of this research lie in the data it will provide on the origins of the Inca and their expansion into the largest empire in the prehistoric Andes. The research will also shed light on the relationship between the Inca state and the earlier Tiwanaku state. Analyses of pathology and trauma will provide key information regarding the impact of the state on health and the role of warfare in state formation. Moreover, by adding to a growing database of analyzed skeletal collections from throughout the Andean region, this research will help bioarchaeologists gain a broader perspective on the influences state level societies have on the living conditions of local populations under their control.The broader impacts of this research include its contributions to graduate training and education and fostering the development of international scientific cooperation. Finally, the dissemination of this research in Peru will contribute to the growing indigenous interest in the cultural achievements of the Inca.