Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Coping with Collapse -- the Effects of Political Decline on Social Identities

在国家科学基金会博士论文改进补助金的支持下，瑞安·威廉姆斯博士和尼古拉·沙拉特博士将完成一项关于提瓦纳库州崩溃的考古研究，提瓦纳库州是安第斯山脉最早的州之一。大约在公元600年左右，提瓦纳库人在玻利维亚的喀喀湖附近出现后，它在安第斯山脉中南部的文化和政治上占据了主导地位。它在整个地区建立了殖民地。其中最大的殖民地位于秘鲁莫夸加山谷，距离该州首府300公里。公元1000年左右，这个国家开始了一个旷日持久的暴力崩溃过程。提瓦纳库定居点的居民摧毁了国家权威的象征，烧毁了寺庙，并逃离了国家行政中心。尽管对提瓦纳库国的出现和扩张以及其暴力解体的原因进行了大量研究，但相对较少的工作是致力于了解崩溃如何影响社区认同自己和其中的个人的方式。利用墓葬中的考古学证据，本论文项目解决了这个问题。它审查了崩溃后的社区在多大程度上继续坚持植根于其提瓦纳库祖先的身份。它还探讨了社区内的身份认同(如性别、地位、职业和年龄)是否在国家崩溃的情况下保持不变。为了做到这一点，该项目比较了提瓦纳库州崩溃前后莫夸加的埋葬情况。来自国家权威巅峰时期墓地的考古数据与威廉姆斯和沙拉特在政治解体后使用的墓地挖掘的墓葬进行了比较。莫夸加山谷的干旱环境使人们能够分析通常会死亡的木质和纺织品坟墓包裹体。对骨骼遗骸以及陶器、纺织品、珠宝和木雕的挖掘和分析表明，崩溃后的社区在很大程度上继续认为自己是提瓦纳库，尽管没有一个统领一切的提瓦纳库州当局。然而，在国家解体后，社区内部认同的其他方面似乎变得越来越重要。特别是，社区内的亲属群体使用葬礼仪式和物质物品来维护他们特定的群体身份。NSF的资金将支持该项目的最后、也是重要的阶段。它将支持对这两个地点的埋葬进行放射性碳测年，使该项目能够确定这一显著身份转变的时间框架。它还将支持陶瓷材料的化学分析，通过该项目将确定陶器形式和装饰风格上的工艺差异是否在工艺生产的看不见的方面也明显。国家崩溃一直是考古学越来越感兴趣的话题，但这项研究的大部分集中在政治解体的原因和直接的政治后果上。人类学对社会身份的研究主要集中在身份与殖民强国或帝国扩张之间的关系。这个项目的学术价值在于，它通过利用这两个重要主题(崩溃和身份)来考虑相反的情况，并询问当一个最重要的政治权威崩溃时，身份是如何受到影响的。当代世界继续发生国家崩溃，最近的种族冲突表明，身份认同和政治分裂以强有力、建设性的、往往是破坏性的方式相互交织在一起。了解社区如何应对国家崩溃的意义远远超出了提瓦纳库州。该项目是与莫夸加当地的考古博物馆密切合作进行的，威廉姆斯和沙拉特参与了博物馆的展览，并为社区制作了关于发掘和项目发现的信息传单。

With support from a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, Dr. Ryan Williams and Nicola Sharratt will complete an archaeological study on the collapse of the Tiwanaku state, one of the earliest states in the Andes. Following its emergence near the shores of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia, around AD 600, the Tiwanaku held cultural and political sway over the south central Andes. It established colonies throughout the region. The largest of these colonies was 300km away from the state capital, in the Moquegua Valley, Peru. Around AD 1000, the state began a drawn out process of violent collapse. Inhabitants of Tiwanaku settlements destroyed symbols of state authority, burnt down temples, and fled from state administrative centers. Although considerable research has been undertaken on the emergence and expansion of the Tiwanaku state, and the causes of its violent disintegration, comparatively little work has been devoted to understanding how the collapse affected the way in which communities identified themselves and the individuals within them. Using archaeological evidence from burials, this dissertation project addresses that issue. It examines the extent to which post-collapse communities continued to assert an identity that was rooted in their Tiwanaku ancestry. It also explores whether intra-community identities (such as gender, status, occupation and age) were maintained despite the collapse of the state. To do this, the project compares burials in Moquegua from before and after Tiwanaku state collapse. Archaeological data from a cemetery dating to the height of state authority is compared with burials excavated by Williams and Sharratt at a cemetery that was used after political disintegration. The arid environment of the Moquegua Valley allows the analysis of wooden and textile grave inclusions that would normally perish. The excavation and analysis of skeletal remains as well as pottery, textiles, jewelry and carved wooden objects suggest that post-collapse communities largely continued to identify themselves as Tiwanaku, despite the absence of an overarching Tiwanaku state authority. However, it appears that other aspects of intra-community identity were increasingly significant after the collapse of the state. In particular, kin-groups within the community used funerary rituals and material goods to assert their particular group identity. NSF funding will support the final, important stages of this project. It will support radiocarbon dating of burials from both sites, enabling the project to determine the temporal framework of this shift in salient identity. It will also support chemical analysis of ceramic material, through which the project will establish whether crafting differences evident in pottery forms and decorative styles are evident also in unseen aspects of craft production. State collapse has been a topic of increased archaeological interest, but most of this research has concentrated on the causes and immediate political ramifications of political disintegration. Anthropological research on social identities has focused on the relationship between identities and the expansion of a colonial power or empire. The intellectual merit of this project is that it considers the opposite situation by drawing on these two important themes (collapse and identity) and asks how identities are affected when an overarching political authority collapses. State collapse continues to occur in the contemporary world, and recent ethnic conflicts suggest that identity and political fragmentation are intertwined in powerful, constructive and often destructive ways. Understanding how communities react to state collapse has relevance far beyond the Tiwanaku state. This project is being undertaken in close collaboration with the local archaeology museum in Moquegua, and Williams and Sharratt are involved in contributing to museum displays and producing informational leaflets for the community on the excavations and project findings.