Dendroarchaeology and Early Dinetah Navajo Social Organization

罗纳德·托纳，学生和志愿者，将进行两个季节的考古年轮采样，分析和解释一个大的原始早期纳瓦霍考古遗址在纳瓦霍人的家园在新墨西哥州西北部的迪尼塔。 该项目将：（1）从Gobernador Phase收集的树木年轮样本数量增加一倍以上（公元1650-1775年）纳瓦霍遗址，绝对日期的数量随之增加，（2）描绘三个已知的高密度18世纪世纪纳瓦霍人占领地区的时间和空间方面，并将其与以前三个项目的现有数据进行比较，（3）综合所有的树木年轮日期纳瓦霍网站在Dinetah，（4）比较和对比早期纳瓦霍定居模式与现存的树木年轮为基础的气候重建，（5）建立新的模型早期纳瓦霍人口和社会组织在家庭，居住群体，中层，社区，并可能部落的水平。由此产生的数据和解释将大大有助于考古学家，人类学家，历史学家和地理学家了解早期纳瓦霍社会群体对Dinetah的占领，北方西南部早期历史时期更广泛的人口动态，以及人类行为变异性，气候变异性和社会政治变化之间的关系。 几十年来，纳瓦霍人的社会组织一直是广泛而深入的人类学研究的主题，但绝大多数此类研究都集中在楚斯卡山脉以西的保留地时代（1868年后）群体。 迪尼塔的早期纳瓦霍考古提供了一个机会，可以研究保留地前纳瓦霍群体的社会组织，这些群体并不致力于畜牧业，而是在严重的气候和社会压力时期实行非常混合的经济。该项目将使用树木年轮，考古学，人类学，历史和现存的口述历史数据来阐明Gobernador阶段纳瓦霍定居点的各个方面之前，通过一种田园生活方式，并将显着提高我们对纳瓦霍人转变为畜牧业之前的早期纳瓦霍社会组织的理解。 该项目将导致理解早期纳瓦霍文化动态和社会组织的重大进展;它将阐明早期纳瓦霍人口统计学的重要方面，并增强中层社会组织的人类学理论。 该项目将产生重大影响，超越Dinetah纳瓦霍和考古学。 它将对理解在前工业化的、与边疆接触的社会中，各种形式的社会组织是如何以及在什么条件下发展起来的做出重要贡献。这种社会形成过程的模型将有助于更广泛地理解人类社会组织在人口，气候和社会政治压力时期。 该项目还将有助于学生的培训和发展。它也可能有助于校准其他计时技术，如古地磁和热释光测年，并完善史前和早期历史陶器类型的陶瓷系列研究。它将完善纳瓦霍木材使用的模型，这可能对理解技术变革对森林资源开发的影响有影响。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Ronald Towner, students, and volunteers, will conduct two seasons of archaeological tree-ring sampling, analysis, and interpretation of a large set of pristine Early Navajo archaeological sites in the Navajo homeland of Dinetah in northwestern New Mexico. This project will: (1) more than double the number of tree-ring samples collected from Gobernador Phase (AD 1650-1775) Navajo sites with a concomitant increase in the number of absolute dates, (2) delineate the temporal and spatial aspects of three areas of known high-density 18th century Navajo occupation and compare them to existing data from three previous projects, (3) synthesize all tree-ring dated Navajo sites in Dinetah, (4) compare and contrast Early Navajo settlement patterns with extant tree-ring based reconstructions of climate, and (5) build new models of Early Navajo demography and social organization at the household, residence group, mid-level, community, and possibly tribal level. The resulting data and interpretations will significantly aid archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and geographers in understanding the occupation of Dinetah by Early Navajo social groups, the broader population dynamics of the early historical period in the northern Southwest, and the relationships between human behavioral variability, climate variability, and sociopolitical change. Navajo social organization has been the subject of extensive and intensive anthropological research for decades, but the vast majority of such research has concentrated on Reservation-era (post-1868) groups west of the Chuska Mountains. Early Navajo archaeology in Dinetah provides an opportunity to examine the social organization of pre-Reservation Navajo groups who were not committed to pastoralism, but instead practiced a very mixed economy during times of severe climatic and social stress. This project will use tree-ring, archaeological, anthropological, historical, and extant oral history data to illuminate aspects of Gobernador phase Navajo settlement prior to the adoption of a pastoral lifeway and will significantly enhance our understanding of Early Navajo social organization prior to the Navajo transformation to pastoralism. The project will result in significant advances in understanding Early Navajo cultural dynamics and social organization; it will illuminate important aspects of Early Navajo demography, and enhance anthropological theories of mid-level social organization. This project will have significant impacts beyond the Dinetah Navajo and archaeology. It will make important contributions toward understanding how and under what conditions various forms of social organization developed in a pre-industrial, frontier-contact society. Models of such social formation processes will contribute to a broader understanding of human social organization during periods of demographic, climatic, and sociopolitical stress. The project will also contribute toward student training and development. It may also contribute to calibration other chronometric techniques, such as archaeomagnetism and thermoluminescence dating, and to refining ceramic seriation studies of protohistoric and early historic pottery types. It will refine models of Navajo wood use that may have implications for understanding the impacts of technological change on the exploitation of forest resources.