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

在Michael W.格雷夫斯，布里顿谢泼德森将调查拉帕努伊（复活节岛），智利的纪念性雕像的建设历史。 拉帕努伊岛是波利尼西亚在太平洋上最东端的陆地，已经持续有人居住了一千多年。 岛上有着密集的文物，从小型黑曜石长矛到巨大的石台（Moai）和700多座巨石雕像（Moai）。 研究和分析将主要基于Shepardson已经收集的708尊雕像的数据。 对于每尊雕像，谢泼德森记录了多达25个正式特征的测量结果（例如，眼宽、鼻宽、耳长等）。 此外，该数据库还包括每尊雕像的数码照片、地理来源和定性描述。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方面的人均投入非常高。 鉴于拉帕努伊相对贫困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的奥秘。 该项目的重点是雕像作为岛上纪念性建筑的保存完好和高度详细的代表。 具体而言，拟议的研究旨在更好地了解在一项看似与日常生存无关的活动中投入如此巨大的精力，在历史上可能会影响岛屿文化的稳定性。 虽然传统的说法将雕像建设描述为浪费和昂贵的资源利用，但拟议的研究还考虑了复杂的社会组织和精心管理雕刻，运输和竖立数百座巨型石像所需的资源的可能性，从长远来看，这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并移动到岛上不同位置的预期。 反过来，对雕像进行详细的年代分析（通过在雕像背景下对文物进行化学测年和通过风格变化）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以及当今世界对他们祖先的看法产生更广泛的影响。 Shepardson和拉帕努伊的Padre塞巴斯蒂安Englert人类学博物馆已经建立了一个志愿者高中教育方案，确保当地青年参与岛上未来的研究方案（http：//www.terevaka.net/apo.html）。 这个推广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，以换取拉帕努伊高中学生的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.