Diet and Social Stratification in Ancient Puerto Rico

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，一个由波多黎各和美国考古学家，物理人类学家和骨骼化学专家组成的跨学科团队将在四个史前波多黎各遗址进行为期18个月的研究，研究社会复杂性的发展与人类饮食变化之间的关系。这项工作的主要目的是加深了解食品消费随时间的变化，这种变化可能反映了社会的更广泛变革，在欧洲人征服时，波多黎各的许多土著人民组成了等级社会，现代人类学家称之为酋长社会。这些分层的社会是在波多黎各当地从早期的平等主义群体发展起来的，经过4000多年的占领，发生了一系列社会文化变化。虽然大量的研究致力于了解诸如美索不达米亚、墨西哥和安第斯山脉等地区社会等级化加剧的原因和后果，但对加勒比等地区的研究相对较少。本研究旨在通过对食物的研究来解决这个传统上研究不足的地区社会分层发展问题的一部分，在许多社会中，食物是社会差异的一个很好的晴雨表（例如，例如西方文化中的鱼子酱和野鸡）。这项工作将试图梳理出食物消费模式随时间的变化，重点是阐明普通人和发展中的社会精英之间的饮食差异。为了实现这些目标，将采用严格的史前饮食研究方法，包括分析大样本（ca. 250人）的人类遗骸从四个地点。将通过对骨骼和可能的食物进行化学分析，在个人层面上分析饮食。一种被称为稳定同位素分析的技术可以相对精确地区分长期死亡的个体的饮食。从这一分析中获得的数据将与所分析的遗址的详细考古资料相结合，并将通过对所有受研究的个人进行放射性碳年代测定严格控制年代。这一项目的智力价值有两个方面：首先，它试图研究世界上一个传统上受到忽视的地区社会分层的原地发展。其次，它试图通过研究个人的饮食来跟踪个人层面的社会变化，而不是使用总体措施。这一技术将允许产生更细粒度的数据，从而允许更强大的理论建设和评估，本项目的影响将在广泛的范围内感受到，首先是因为所采用的方法将能够在其他地区和社会的研究中实施，其次是因为研究结果将广泛传播给学术界和非专业人士。 该项目将协助培训波多黎各和美国（研究生和本科生）学生，并将促进加勒比学者与美国考古学家之间的进一步合作。

With the support of the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of Puerto Rican and American archaeologists, physical anthropologists, and experts in bone chemistry will conduct eighteen months of research into the relationship between the development of social complexity and changes in human diet at four prehistoric Puerto Rican sites. The principal goal of this work is an increased understanding of the changes in the consumption of foodstuffs over time that may reflect broader transformations of society.At the time of European conquest, many of the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico were organized in stratified societies that have been described by modern anthropologists as chiefdoms. These stratified societies had developed locally in Puerto Rico from earlier egalitarian groups through a series of socio-cultural changes that took place over more than 4000 years of occupation. While a great deal of research has been directed at understanding the causes and consequences of increasing social hierarchization in regions like Mesopotamia, Mexico, and the Andes, comparatively little effort has been expended on regions such as the Caribbean. The present study aims to address just one portion of the issues surrounding the development of social stratification in this traditionally under-studied region through the study of food, which in many societies is an excellent barometer of social difference (e.g., such as caviar and pheasants in Western cultures). This work will attempt to tease out changes in the patterns of food consumption through time, focusing on the elucidation of differences in diet between common people and a developing social elite.In order to accomplish these goals, a rigorous methodology for the study of prehistoric diets will be employed involving the analysis of a large sample (ca. 250 individuals) of human remains from the four sites. Diet will be analyzed at an individual level by means of the chemical analysis of the bones and possible foodstuffs. A technique called stable isotope analysis allows for the relatively precise discrimination of the diets of long-deceased individuals. The data derived from this analysis will be coupled with detailed archaeological information from the sites under analysis and will be rigorously chronologically controlled through the radiocarbon dating of all individuals under study.The intellectual merit of this project is twofold: First, it seeks to study the in situ development of social stratification in a part of the world that has traditionally received short shrift. Second, it attempts to track social change at the level of the individual, through the study of their diets, rather than using aggregate measures. This technique will allow for the production of much finer-grained data allowing for far more robust theory building and evaluation.The impacts of the present project will be felt on a broad scale first because the methodology employed will be able to be implemented in the study of other regions and societies, and second because the results of the study will be widely disseminated to both academic and lay constituencies. This project will assist in the training of both Puerto Rican and American (graduate and undergraduate) students and will facilitate further collaboration between Caribbeanists on one hand and American archaeologists on the other.