The Creation and Management of the Southwest Amazon: Landscape and Sociopolitical Organization in the Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia

在国家科学基金会的支持下，约翰步行者博士将与一个由考古学家、学生和其他利益相关者组成的国际团队一起在玻利维亚亚马逊进行两个季节的考古研究。该项目比较了农业景观中的定居点，并将其作为社会组织方式的证据进行分析。每一个农业景观都反映了与其建设和维护相关的当地历史和社会政治组织。关于社会、政治和农业集约化的争论往往集中在集中控制上，而对地方组织的细节却没有进行充分的研究。在最大范围内，由强大的中央集权机构组织的农业反映在强大的空间格局中。在中等规模上，农业与组织农业劳动的社区相对应的定居点相联系。在最小的尺度上，农业组织与由当地条件主导的原子化景观相关。要理解集约农业，重点必须转移到分析当地的空间和社会政治组织。Mojos是玻利维亚亚马逊地区的一个季节性洪水泛滥的热带稀树草原，其中数百平方公里的农业特征仍然可见。像世界各地的许多农民一样，Mojeños将他们的景观雕刻成田地，运河，堤道和土丘，以改善土壤条件并控制水。经过几代人的努力，他们建立了各种各样的环境，这些环境既制约着日常活动，也是他们创造的。这些景观是逐步建造的，反映了农业社会的历史和结构。该项目的重点是莫霍斯中部的两个研究区，位于马莫雷河以西的土方工程区，靠近圣安娜德尔亚库马。首先，区域挖掘被用来检查解决与防御，仪式和宴会相关的公共活动的证据。其次，在地面调查，收集诊断陶瓷和测试挖掘是用来定位和定义内的两个农业景观的解决。最后，实验室分析被用于建立陶瓷年表，重建环境，并获得陶瓷用于烹饪，酿造和服务的证据。该项目的智力价值有三个方面：首先，它将有助于重新定位考古学，对个人和团体进行日常工作的地点进行更全面的研究。第二，这个项目与农业景观如何长期成功管理（或不成功）有关。这些考古景观记录了创造、改造和管理资源的替代方式。第三，通过结合定居和农业的考古记录，它有助于重新解释亚马逊盆地作为一个网络的人为景观。更广泛的影响，研究包括国际研究界的发展。该项目将继续发展美国和玻利维亚机构之间的联系，包括大学、国家、省、地方和市政府、博物馆和土著社区。与巴西和英国机构的潜在合作将为玻利维亚和美国学生提供广泛的机会。

With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. John Walker will work with an international team of archaeologists, students and other stakeholders during two seasons of archaeological research in the Bolivian Amazon. This project compares settlement within agricultural landscapes and analyzes it as evidence for how society was organized. Every agricultural landscape reflects the local history and sociopolitical organization associated with its construction and maintenance. Debates about society, politics and agricultural intensification often focus on centralized control, leaving details of local organization understudied. At the largest scale, the organization of agriculture by a strong, centralized authority is reflected in a strong spatial pattern. At intermediate scales, agriculture is linked to settlements that correspond to the communities that organized agricultural labor. At the smallest scale, organization of agriculture is correlated with an atomized landscape, dominated by local conditions. To understand intensive agriculture, the focus must shift to the analysis of local spatial and sociopolitical organization. Mojos is a seasonally flooded tropical savanna in the Bolivian Amazon in which hundreds of square kilometers of agricultural features are still visible. Like many farmers around the world, Mojeños sculpted their landscape into fields, canals, causeways and mounds that improved soil conditions and controlled water. Over many generations, they built a variety of environments that both conditioned daily activities and were created by them. These landscapes were built incrementally, reflecting both the history and structure of farming societies.The project focuses on two study areas in Central Mojos, in a region of earthworks west of the Mamoré River, near Santa Ana del Yacuma. First, area excavations are used to examine settlement for evidence of communal activity associated with defense, ritual, and feasting. Second, on-the-ground survey, collection of diagnostic ceramics and test excavation is used to locate and define settlement within each of two agricultural landscapes. Finally, laboratory analyses are used to build ceramic chronology, reconstruct environment, and obtain evidence of the use of ceramics for cooking, brewing and serving.The intellectual merit of the project is threefold: First, it will help reorient archaeology towards to more comprehensive studies of the locations where individuals and groups carried out daily tasks. Second, this project is relevant to how agricultural landscapes were successfully managed (or not) over the long term. These archaeological landscapes are records of alternative ways to create, transform and manage resources. Third, by combining the archaeological record of settlement and agriculture, it contributes to the reinterpretation of the Amazon Basin as a network of anthropogenic landscapes.The broader impacts of the study include the development of an international research community. The project will continue to develop connections between institutions in the US and Bolivia including universities, national, departmental, local and municipal governments, museums and indigenous communities. Potential collaboration with institutions in Brazil and the UK will open a wide range of opportunities for both Bolivian and US students.