Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Evolution of Energy Investment in Monumental Statuary of Prehistoric Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

在迈克尔·w·格雷夫斯博士的指导下，布里顿·谢泼德森将调查智利拉帕努伊岛（复活节岛）不朽雕像的建造历史。拉帕努伊岛是波利尼西亚在太平洋最东端的陆地，一千多年来一直有人居住。岛上有大量的文物，从小的黑曜石矛尖到巨大的石头平台（ahu）和700多尊巨石雕像（moai）。研究和分析将主要基于谢泼德森已经收集的708座雕像的数据。对于每个雕像，Shepardson记录了多达25个正式特征（例如，眼睛宽度，鼻子宽度，耳朵长度等）的测量值。此外，该数据库还包括数字照片、地理来源和每个雕像的定性描述。拉帕努伊岛长期以来一直是波利尼西亚乃至整个世界的一个原型，因为它在仪式建筑和雕像上的人均能源投入极高。鉴于拉帕努伊岛相对贫瘠的环境和有限的自然资源基础，在纪念性建筑方面的成就提供了一个人类学和进化的谜团。拟议的项目侧重于雕像，因为它们保存完好，非常详细，是岛上纪念性建筑的代表。具体来说，拟议的研究旨在更好地理解，在一项看似与日常生存无关的活动中，如此巨大的能量投入是如何在历史上影响岛屿文化的稳定性的。虽然传统的说法将雕像的建造描述为对资源的浪费和昂贵的利用，但拟议的研究也考虑了这样一种可能性，即复杂的社会组织和对雕刻、运输和竖立数百尊巨型石像所需资源的精心管理，从长远来看可能有助于减缓自然资源的过度开发。古环境资源的计算机建模和通过雕像制造对这些资源的消耗的模拟将产生对雕像何时建造和移动到岛上不同位置的期望。反过来，雕像的详细时间分析（通过雕像背景下的人工制品的化学年代测定和风格变化）将检验这些期望和传统假设。除了人类学家感兴趣的科学调查之外，拟议的研究将对拉帕努伊社区及其祖先在当今世界的认知方式产生更广泛的影响。Shepardson和Rapa Nui的Padre Sebastian Englert人类学博物馆已经建立了一个志愿高中教育项目，确保当地年轻人参与岛上未来的研究项目（http://www.terevaka.net/apo.html）。这项外展计划已经为来自世界各地的研究生提供了进行长期研究项目的机会，作为交换，他们将到拉帕努伊岛的高中学生进行实地考察和课堂教学。

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael W. Graves, Britton Shepardson will investigate the history of construction of the monumental statues of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. Rapa Nui is Polynesia's easternmost landmass in the Pacific and has been continuously inhabited for more than one thousand years. The island hosts a dense array of artifacts ranging from small obsidian spear points to massive stone platforms (ahu) and more than 700 megalithic statues (moai). Research and analyses will be based primarily on data already collected by Shepardson for 708 statues. For each statue, Shepardson recorded measurements for as many as twenty-five formal features (e.g., eye width, nose width, ear length, etc.). Additionally, the database includes digital photographs, geographic provenience, and qualitative descriptions of each statue.Rapa Nui has long served as a prototype in Polynesia, and for the entire world, for having an overwhelmingly high per capita investment of energy in ceremonial architecture and statuary. Given the relatively impoverished environment and limited natural resource base of Rapa Nui, the achievements in monumental construction offer an anthropological and evolutionary mystery. The proposed project focuses on the statues as well-preserved and highly detailed representatives of monumental construction on the island. Specifically, the proposed research aims to better understand how such a tremendous investment of energy in an activity seemingly unrelated to daily survival may have impacted the stability of the island culture historically. While traditional accounts depict statue construction as a wasteful and expensive utilization of resources, the proposed research also considers the possibility that complex social organization and careful management of resources required to carve, transport, and erect hundreds of giant stone statues may have helped to decelerate overexploitation of natural resources in the long run. Computer modeling of paleoenvironmental resources and simulation of consumption of those resources through statue manufacturing will generate expectations for when statues were constructed and moved to different locations on the island. In turn, detailed chronological analyses (through chemical dating of artifacts in the context of statues and through stylistic variation) of the statues will test those expectations and traditional assumptions.Beyond scientific investigation of interest to anthropologists, the proposed research will have a broader impact in the Rapa Nui community and the way their ancestors are perceived in today's world. A volunteer high school education program already established by Shepardson and the Padre Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum of Rapa Nui ensures that local youths are involved in future research programs on the island (http://www.terevaka.net/apo.html). This outreach program has already instituted opportunities for graduate students from around the world to conduct long-term research projects in exchange for fieldwork and classroom instruction for Rapa Nui high school students.