Dissertation Research: Tribal Expansion and Social Boundary Maintenance: Oneota?s Far-Western Edge in the Vicinity of the Swantek Site, Central Nebraska

在John M. O'Shea博士的监督下，Daniel Pugh将在斯旺泰克遗址进行挖掘，这是内布拉斯加州中部奥涅塔人14世纪的占领地。奥奥塔文化于12世纪在中西部发展起来，在大平原地区发现如此大量的存在是不寻常的。研究人员推测，奥涅塔人迁徙到平原上是为了控制野牛和其他草原资源。这可能是由多种因素造成的，包括在奥奥塔早期统治中西部的密西西比酋长领地权力的削弱，奥奥塔经济中越来越多地使用野牛产品，奥奥塔的组织体系可以很容易地取代平原上组织不那么完善的土著群体。奥内奥塔的其他遗址也在平原上，但通常被解释为来自中西部的人偶尔到平原上狩猎野牛的小入侵。斯旺泰克遗址比大平原上的其他奥奥塔人遗址更大、更复杂，它提供了一个很好的机会来测试史前晚期大平原上是否有一个更永久的奥奥塔人存在。该项目将测试和挖掘Swantek遗址，以确定该遗址有多大，在其上进行了什么类型的活动，以及它被占用了多长时间。该项目将对美国中部大陆史前晚期的理解产生重大影响。这项研究将收集有关史前部落过程的经验数据，这将修订我们对史前的理解，同时增加我们对世界各地部落组织社会的理解。将特别关注位于大型部落系统边缘的社会，这些社会与其他系统建立和谈判边界-有时是贸易，有时是战斗，有时是回避，有时是迁移和扩大领土控制。在我们这个日益全球化的世界里，这些地方性的扩张、迁徙、战争和结盟的过程是极其重要的。在这个世界里，西方国家与有部落组织的民族有接触，并直接受到国家与部落社会之间关系的影响，也受到我们国家利益领域内部落社会之间关系的影响。了解这些社会对自身不断变化的局势作出反应的方式，使我们有机会预测自身局势的变化，并帮助解决部落人民之间的危机。除了该项目的理论和历史意义外，它还是培养有抱负的考古学家和社区教育的重要机会。来自热那亚、东北和内布拉斯加州考古协会的几位当地社区成员将参观并在现场做志愿者，这将给他们一个机会直接接触当地的史前史，并亲眼看到为什么当地史前史和遗址管理是重要的。

Under the supervision of Dr. John M. O'Shea, Daniel Pugh will conduct excavations at the Swantek Site, a 14th century Oneota occupation in central Nebraska. Oneota culture developed in the Midwest in the 12th century and it is unusual to find such a substantial presence in the Great Plains. The researchers hypothesize that groups of Oneota people migrated onto the Plains in order to control bison and other prairie resources. This was made possible by a variety of factors including a reduction in the power of Mississippian chiefdoms that dominated the Midwest during the early Oneota period, an increasing use of bison products in the Oneota economy, and an Oneota organizational system that could easily displace the less well-organized groups indigenous to the Plains. Other Oneota sites are known on the Plains, but typically are interpreted as small intrusions of people from the Midwest occasionally visiting the Plains for bison hunting. The Swantek site is larger and more complex than the other Oneota sites on the Great Plains, and provides an excellent opportunity to test whether there was a more permanent Oneota presence on the Great Plains in the late Prehistoric Period. This project will test and excavate the Swantek site in order to determine how large the site was, what types of activities were carried out on it, and how long it was occupied. This project will have a significant impact on understandings of the Late Prehistoric period on the US mid-continent. The research will gather empirical data about prehistoric tribal processes that will revise our understandings of prehistory while adding to our understandings of tribally-organized societies worldwide. Particular attention will be focused on societies at the edges of large tribal systems that establish and negotiate boundaries with other systems - sometimes trading, sometimes fighting, sometimes avoiding, and sometimes migrating and expanding territorial control. These local processes of expansion, migration, warfare, and alliance are extremely important in our increasingly globalized world where Western nations are in contact with tribally organized peoples and are directly affected by the relations between nations and tribal societies as well as among tribal societies in areas of our national interest. Understanding the ways that those societies will react to their own changing situations offers us a chance to anticipate changes in our own situations and to help solve crises among tribal peoples. In addition to the theoretical and historical significance of this project, it is an important opportunity for the training of aspiring archaeologists and for community education. Several members of the local community around Genoa, NE and the Nebraska Archaeological Association will visit and volunteered at the site, giving them a chance to come into direct contact with local prehistory and to see first hand why local prehistory and site stewardship is important.