DDI: Culture contact and social change on the 'savage' frontiers of the Han State: Exploration of a Bronze Age society in the Qujing Plain of Yunnan, China

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Under the direction of Dr. Carla Sinopoli Ms Alice Yao will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze burial objects recovered during archaeological excavations at three cemeteries which date to the Han period and are located in the Qujing region of Yunnan province, China. The cemeteries date from the Bronze to the Iron Age (c. 700 BC to c AD 100) and the project has three immediate goals. The first is to document the burial customs in the three cemeteries. This includes reconstructing to the highest resolution possible the spatial and stratigraphic associations of each grave to identify the synchronic and diachronic organization of the burials. Secondly, Ms. Yao wishes to determine the range of social roles and statuses represented in each cemetery and burial phase and the material correlates of these cultural behaviors. The final and most important goal is to examine the kinds and extent of changes in social roles and cultural representation that occurred on both local and regional scales in the Qujing area over several periods and determine the specific factors and underlying social processes responsible.The Han represents an early stage of Chinese civilization and expanded to influence and incorporate outlying regions which, in Chinese historical texts are considered "barbarian." The conventional assumption is that in such contact situations, the more developed culture "dominates" and the more peripheral partner becomes acculturated to the dominant mode. However recent anthropological research indicates that the situation is considerably more complex and the less powerful of the two groups most often retain sufficient ability to adopt, reject or modify specific cultural influences. The Han - Qujing interaction provides an excellent opportunity to examine such relationships and to seek the underlying processes involved. This award will not only add to anthropological knowledge but also assist in training a promising young scientist.