Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pre-Columbian Societies of Southern Manabi (Ecuador) and the Role of Shell Export

在Robert D.Drennan博士的指导下，Alexander Martin将在厄瓜多尔马纳比南部进行一项考古聚落研究，以重建该地区在16世纪西班牙征服之前数千年的定居人类占领期间社会变化的大致轮廓。长期以来，考古学家一直对促成复杂社会形成的原因感兴趣，这些复杂社会融合了大量人口，涵盖了几个当地社区，而且经常涉及大量的社会等级制度。这些类型的社会已经在世界许多地方发展起来，许多因素被认为是造成这些转变的原因。一个经常被提及的因素是，出口奢侈品的生产是使一些社会可能变得更加复杂的关键变量。例如，一些社会发展模型提出，这类物品的制造通过提供一条支持不平等加剧的盈余积累途径，促进了复杂性的上升。同样，也有人认为，奢侈品贸易让精英阶层获得了对深奥物品的垄断，这些物品证实了他们作为特殊个人的地位，并帮助维持了社会不平等。尽管这样的模式很常见，但出口部门是社会发展的重要因素的观点并不普遍，许多社会发展模式也认为，生产出口奢侈品在很大程度上与不平等的加剧无关。马纳比南部沿海为研究复杂的社会发展提供了理想的机会，尤其是出口奢侈品在这一过程中的作用，因为该地区的人口在考古文献中因制造和贸易脊椎动物贝壳而闻名，秘鲁国家从公元600-800年左右开始大量消费脊椎动物贝壳。这种交通被认为是史前贸易的一种特别强烈和大规模的表达，许多学者认为它对该地区的社会变革至关重要。如果这些学者是正确的，那么南马纳比是一个研究它是如何运作的理想地点。另一方面，如果证据表明，已知的大量出口贸易对社会变革的影响微乎其微，那么用于支持此类模型的最有希望的案例之一将受到破坏。这项评估的关键将是通过系统的考古聚落研究重建马纳比南部社会发展的大致历程。通过绘制史前居住地的位置图并确定这些定居点在不同时期是如何变化的，就可以看出重大的社会变化是否对应于对脊椎动物物品的外部需求大幅增加的时期(如公元800年后奇穆国的巩固)。拟议研究的更广泛影响包括对博士生的培训。它还将为其他考古学学生提供实地经验，他们将在实地收集数据期间提供协助。将与地方合作社合作开展研究，地方合作社是传统的农民合作社，目的是公平地重新分配当地生产的资源。Comunas还积极参与激起当地对该区域文化遗产的自豪感。它们的成员将参与该项目，其结果将通过与地方当局和当地学校教师协调的会谈，通过全国委员会在当地传播。这项研究还将有助于为公共图书馆经营的当地博物馆的展示提供信息。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, Alexander Martin will carry out an archaeological settlement study in southern Manabi, Ecuador, to reconstruct the broad outlines of social change in the region through the several millennia of sedentary human occupation prior to the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century. Archaeologists have long been interested in the causes that contribute to the formation of complex societies that integrate large populations, encompass several local communities, and that frequently involve substantial social hierarchy. These types of societies have developed in many parts of the world and many factors have been suggested as responsible for these transformations. One often cited factor is that production of luxury items for export was the key variable that made it possible for some societies to grow in complexity. For example, some models of social development propose that the manufacture of these kinds of items promoted the rise in complexity by offering an avenue of surplus accumulation which supported the rise in inequality. Likewise, it has also been argued that the trade of luxury goods allowed elites to gain monopoly over esoteric items that validated their status as special individuals and helped maintain social inequality. While models such as these are common, the view that export sectors were an important factor in social development is not universally held and many models of social development also argue that production of luxury items for export was largely inconsequential to the rise of inequality. Coastal southern Manabi offers an ideal opportunity to investigate complex society development, and especially the role of exported luxury goods in this process, because the populations of that area are well known in the archaeological literature for the manufacture and trade of Spondylus shell items, which Peruvian states consumed in large quantities beginning at around A.D. 600-800. This traffic is considered to be an especially intense and large-scale expression of prehistoric trade and many scholars have seen it as pivotal in social change in the region. If these scholars are correct, then southern Manabi is an ideal place to investigate how it worked. If, on the other hand, the evidence suggests that the substantial export trade known to exist had little impact on social change, one of the most promising cases used to support such models will have been undermined. The key to this evaluation will be reconstructing the broad course of social development of southern Manabi through a systematic archaeological settlement study. By mapping the locations of prehistoric occupations and determining how these settlements changed at different periods it will be possible to see whether or not major social change corresponds to periods of substantially increased external demand for Spondylus items (as with the consolidation of the Chimu state after A.D. 800). The broader impacts of the proposed research include the training of the doctoral candidate. It will also provide field experience to other archaeology students who will assist during the collection of data in the field. Research will be carried out in collaboration with local comunas, which are traditional peasant cooperatives formed in order to redistribute locally produced resources equitably. The comunas are also actively engaged in fomenting local pride in the cultural heritage of the region. Their members will participate in the project and its results will be disseminated locally through the comunas by talks that will be coordinated with local authorities and local schoolteachers. The research will also help to inform the displays of the local museum run by the comuna.