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

在迈克尔·W·格雷夫斯博士的监督下，布里顿·谢泼德森将调查智利拉帕努伊(复活节岛)纪念碑雕像的建造历史。拉帕努伊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。该岛拥有大量文物，从小的黑玉矛尖到巨大的石台(AHU)和700多座巨石雕像(MOAI)。研究和分析将主要基于谢泼森已经为708尊雕像收集的数据。对于每一尊雕像，Shepardson记录了多达25个正式特征的尺寸(例如，眼睛宽度、鼻子宽度、耳朵长度等)。此外，该数据库还包括数字照片、地理出处和对每座雕像的定性描述。拉帕努伊长期以来一直是波利尼西亚乃至整个世界的原型，因为它在仪式建筑和雕像上的人均能源投资高得惊人。鉴于拉帕努伊相对贫穷的环境和有限的自然资源基础，纪念碑建设的成就提供了一个人类学和进化论的谜团。拟议的项目重点是保存完好的雕像和岛上纪念性建筑的高度详细的代表。具体地说，这项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上如此巨大的能源投资，从历史上可能会影响到岛屿文化的稳定性。虽然传统的说法将建造雕像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一种可能性，即复杂的社会组织和对雕刻、运输和竖立数百座巨型石像所需资源的仔细管理，从长远来看可能有助于减缓对自然资源的过度开发。对古环境资源进行计算机建模，并通过雕像制造模拟这些资源的消耗，将产生对雕像何时建造并转移到岛上不同位置的预期。反过来，对雕像的详细年代分析(通过雕像背景下的文物化学年代测定和风格变化)将检验这些预期和传统假设。作为人类学家感兴趣的科学调查，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。谢帕德森和拉帕努伊教士塞巴斯蒂安·恩格勒人类学博物馆已经建立了一项志愿高中教育计划，确保当地青年参与到该岛未来的研究计划中(http://www.terevaka.net/apo.html).这一推广计划已经为来自世界各地的研究生提供了开展长期研究项目的机会，以换取为拉帕努伊高中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.