Diet and Social Stratification in Ancient Puerto Rico

在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、体质人类学家和骨骼化学专家组成的跨学科团队将在波多黎各的四个史前遗址进行为期18个月的研究，探讨社会复杂性的发展与人类饮食变化之间的关系。这项工作的主要目标是加深对食物消费随时间的变化的了解，这些变化可能反映了更广泛的社会变化。在欧洲征服时期，波多黎各的许多土著民族是在被现代人类学家描述为酋长领地的分层社会中组织起来的。这些分层社会在波多黎各当地是从早期的平等主义群体发展而来的，经过4000多年占领期间发生的一系列社会文化变化。虽然已有大量研究旨在了解美索不达米亚、墨西哥和安第斯山脉等地区日益加剧的社会等级化的原因和后果，但对加勒比海等地区的努力相对较少。本研究旨在通过对食物的研究来解决这一传统上研究不足的区域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极好的晴雨表(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，重点在于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，将采用一种严格的方法来研究史前饮食，包括对四个遗址的大样本(约250人)的人类遗骸进行分析。通过对骨骼和可能的食物进行化学分析，将在个人层面上分析饮食。一种名为稳定同位素分析的技术可以相对准确地区分长期死亡的个体的饮食。这一分析得出的数据将与所分析遗址的详细考古信息相结合，并将通过对所有被研究个人的放射性碳测年进行严格的年代学控制。该项目的学术价值有两个：首先，它寻求研究世界上一个传统上受到冷遇的地区的社会分层的原址发展。其次，它试图通过对个人饮食的研究来跟踪个人层面的社会变化，而不是使用总体衡量标准。这项技术将能够产生更精细的数据，从而使理论建设和评估更加有力。本项目的影响将在广泛范围内感受到，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，其次是因为研究的结果将广泛传播给学术界和非学术界。该项目将帮助培训波多黎各人和美国人(研究生和本科生)，并将促进加勒比人和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.