Doctoral Dissertation Research: Andean Gristmills: Relations Among Technology, Environment, and Society in Colonial Peru

西班牙农牧做法被引入殖民地秘鲁(1532-1831年)，开启了涉及相互关联的环境、社会和技术因素的景观转变进程。粮食生产是西班牙殖民主义的重要组成部分，因此，许多欧洲植物、动物、工具和技术被引入新领土。管理和管理获取土地、水和其他自然资源的法律、经济和社会机构也从旧世界转移过来，并适应新世界。简而言之，社会和环境的变化是齐头并进的。博士生玛莎·贝尔在宾夕法尼亚州立大学地理系卡尔·齐默勒教授的指导下，通过重点研究西班牙农业工具和技术在秘鲁景观转变中的作用，研究了这些社会和环境变化。特别是，该项目通过确定水轮磨煤机的引入如何导致人与环境之间的新的互动来探索水平水车磨煤机的开发和使用。这项研究涉及的具体问题包括哪些新的土地利用做法因采用晶圆磨而得到便利，以及现有的土地利用做法和环境是如何改变的？在一个复杂的殖民社会中，这些技术的使用如何影响获得食物和水资源的社会空间模式？监管资源获取的机构和治理结构是如何发展起来的？这项研究使用了多种方法，包括研究档案记录，对仍在地貌上的磨坊进行测绘和空间分析，以及对使用水平水车磨坊的秘鲁磨坊工人进行采访。这种以技术为基础的方法通过分析物质文化来理解自然与社会关系。除了它的智力价值，这项拟议的研究还有三个更广泛的影响。首先，该项目将记录有价值的卧式水轮晶闸机的文化和技术知识。农村安第斯山脉是为数不多的仍在使用这项古老技术的地方之一，这项研究项目将有助于保存对这座磨坊的活着的知识。第二，卧式水车磨机是水轮机的直接技术鼻祖。人们一直有兴趣将旧磨坊改造成微型水力发电机组，为偏远的农村地区提供少量电力。该项目可以为安第斯山脉和其他地方的这种水电开发带来的潜在社会和环境影响提供信息。第三，这项研究将进一步理解技术、环境和社会之间的关系，这在当今世界只会变得越来越重要。最后，该项目将通过审查秘鲁在这一动荡时期出现的技术、环境和社会之间的关系，增进我们对西班牙征服和殖民美洲的后果的了解。

The introduction of Spanish agro-pastoral practices to Colonial Peru (1532-1831) initiated processes of landscape transformation involving interconnected environmental, social and technological elements. Food production was an important component of Spanish colonialism, and as such, many European plants, animals, tools and technologies were introduced to the new territories. Legal, economic and social institutions for regulating and administrating access to land, water and other natural resources were also transferred from the Old World and adapted to the New. Put simply, social and environmental changes were progressing hand-in-hand. Doctoral student Martha Bell, under the supervision of Professor Karl Zimmerer in the Department of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University, is investigating these social and environmental changes by focusing on the role of Spanish agricultural tools and technologies in the transformations of the Peruvian landscape. In particular, this project explores the development and use of the horizontal water-wheel gristmill by determining how the introduction of gristmills led to new interactions between people and the environment. Specific questions addressed in this study include what new land use practices were facilitated by the introduction of gristmills and how were existing land use practices and environments altered? How did the use of these technologies influence socio-spatial patterns of access to food and water resources in a complex colonial society? How did institutions and governance structures regulating resource access develop? This study uses a multiple methods approach that includes the study of archival records, the mapping and spatial analysis of mills still on the landscape, and interviews with Peruvian millers who use horizontal water-wheel gristmills. This technology-based approach analyzes material culture to understand nature-society relations. Beyond its intellectual merit, there are three broader impacts of this proposed research. First, this project will record valuable cultural and technical knowledge of horizontal water-wheel gristmills. The rural Andes are one of the few places where this ancient technology is still used, and this research project will help to preserve living knowledge of this mill. Second, the horizontal water-wheel gristmill is the direct technological ancestor of the turbine. There has been interest in converting old mills into hydroelectric generators at a micro-scale, to provide a small amount of electricity to remote rural places. This project can inform the potential social and environmental impacts of such hydroelectric development, in the Andes and elsewhere. Third, this research will further understandings of the relationships between technology, environment and society, something that can only grow in importance in our current world. In conclusion, this project will advance our knowledge of the consequences of the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas by examining the relationships between technology, environment and society that emerged in Peru during this tumultuous period.