Doctoral Dissertation Research: Exploring the Bases of Social Hierarchy in the Jamastran Valley, Southeastern Honduras

在Robert D.Drennan博士的监督下，Eva Martinez将对洪都拉斯东南部的Jamastren山谷进行一次全面的系统调查，以探索该地区社会不平等的基础。从有抱负的精英阶层通过各种政治策略努力改善自己的社会地位的角度来看待社会分化的出现是有用的。对于这种夸大者必须在多大程度上实现对其下属企业的经济控制，存在相当大的争论。一些人认为，如果没有稳固的经济控制作为基础，就不会出现实质性的不平等，而另一些人则认为，在没有太多财富积累的情况下，崇高的社会地位可以建立在声望的基础上。这项研究试图通过评估两种获得社会地位的战略的相对重要性来促进讨论：1)基于对基本农业资源或功利性手工艺品生产的经济控制的战略，以及2)通过操纵与邻近地区精英的联系和象征性地收取名望来提高声望的战略。为了评估这两种战略的相对重要性，马丁内斯将关注精英参与三项活动：1)农业生产；2)当地手工艺品的生产和交流；以及3)地区间的互动。牙买加山谷为探索这些活动的运作和相互作用提供了一个理想的环境。首先，它提供了高产的农地，能够养活大量的常住人口，并可能受到精英阶层的控制。与第二和第三相关联的是，一种罕见的黑铁矿来源，在理解恐慌时期被广泛交易用于制造刀具，位于牙买加山谷附近。无论有没有精英阶层的控制，这种黑铁矿都可能被硅谷居民利用，供当地使用和/或出口。而陶器、纺织品和其他利用当地资源制造的手工艺品，可能几乎由每个家庭生产，或者以非常集中和专业的方式生产，同样是在精英控制下或不在精英控制下。拟议的研究将提供牙买加河谷社会变化的性质和步伐的文件，以便评估其与这些经济因素和潜在的非经济因素的关系。然后，还可以将牙买加河谷的社会变化轨迹与邻近地区的社会变化轨迹进行比较。该项目还将产生更广泛的影响，因为它将是培训博士生的关键因素，并将进一步培训将参加实地工作的洪都拉斯学生。它还将提供目前受到农业开发破坏威胁的文化遗迹的文件，并将加强国际学术合作的联系，因为它将与Antropologia e Storia研究所在该地区的抢救工作密切合作。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, Eva Martinez will carry out a full-coverage systematic survey of the Jamastren Valley, in southeastern Honduras to explore the bases of social inequality in the regions. It is useful to approach the emergence of social differentiation from the perspective of aspiring elites striving to improve their social positions through various political strategies. There is considerable debate over the extent to which such aggrandizers must achieve economic control over those they subordinate. Some argue that no substantial inequality emerges without firm economic control as its base, while others hold that exalted social positions can be based on prestige in the absence of much accumulation of wealth. This research attempts to contribute to the discussion by evaluating the relative importance of two kinds of strategy for gaining social rank: 1) those based on economic control over either basic agricultural resources or the production of utilitarian craft items, and 2) those focused on enhancing prestige by manipulating connections to elites in neighboring regions and symbolically-charged prestige goods.In order to evaluate the relative importance of these two kinds of strategy Ms. Martinez will focus on elite involvement in three activities: 1) agricultural production; 2) local craft production and exchange; and 3) interregional interaction. The Jamastran Valley provides an ideal setting to explore the functioning and interplay of these activities. For the first, it offers highly productive agricultural land, able to support large permanent human populations and potentially subject to elite control. Related to both the second and third, a rare source of obsidian, widely traded for making cutting tools in prehispanic times, is located close to the Jamastran Valley. This obsidian could have been exploited for local use and/or export by residents of the valley, with or without elite control. And pottery, textiles, and other craft goods manufactured from locally available resources might have been produced by practically every family or in much concentrated and specialized fashion, again with or without elite control. The proposed research will provide documentation of the nature and pacing of social change in the Jamastran Valley so that its relationship to these economic and potentially non-economic factors can be evaluated. It will then also be possible to compare the trajectory of social change in the Jamastran Valley to those of neighboring regions. This project will also have a broader impact in that it will be a crucial element in the training of the doctoral candidate, and it will further the training of Honduran students who will participate in the fieldwork. It will also provide documentation of cultural remains currently threatened with destruction by agricultural development, and will strengthen ties of international scholarly collaboration, since it will cooperate closely with salvage efforts in the region by the Instituto Hondures de Antropologia e Historia.