Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Social and Political Interaction in South Africa

在罗德里克·麦金托什（Roderick J. McIntosh）博士的监督下，亚历山大·安东尼特（Alexander Antonites）将对穆塔姆巴（Mutamba）和乌尼拉（Vhunyela）两个考古定居点进行挖掘和分析数据，这两个定居点位于南部非洲最早的类似国家的政策——乔戈里峰（K2）和马蓬古布韦（Mapungubwe）的外围，其历史可追溯到公元1000年至公元1300年。Mutamba和Vhunyela的腹地位置是研究小规模社区如何与新兴政治中心相互作用的理想场所。通常，过度强调直接来自更复杂的中心的控制和同质性。Antonites的挖掘和分析将测试一个模型，该模型认为该地区由地理上分离但相互作用的社区组成。这些相互作用被认为是局部的，而不是自上而下的。这项研究以关于家庭身份、互动模式、社区一级的联系和社会组织的具体问题为指导。该研究特别旨在通过对两个定居点的家庭和公共区域的比较挖掘，确定家庭之间在食物方式、获取外来物品和工艺生产活动方面的差异。陶瓷岩相学和电感耦合质等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）是用来追踪陶瓷来源的分析方法。将陶瓷采购到其生产地点将表明是否存在对生产和再分配模式的集中垄断，或者是否对分散的地方材料交换的替代期望是一个更好的解释。房屋地板和庭院的地球化学采样和挖掘土壤的浮选将恢复小规模的文化和环境数据。这将用于检验对集约化贡品生产的期望是否足够，或者生产是否旨在满足当地需求。值得注意的是，该项目超越了对南非铁器时代陶瓷数据研究的过分强调，同时结合了来自植物岩、淀粉、ICP-MS、岩石学和宏观植物学研究的多种证据。通过使用一种将互动模式和身份角色考虑在内的范式，该研究将有助于对南非过去的可变性有一个更细致入微的看法。它偏离了南非考古学的规范模型，而是探索了物质文化的重大变化。研究乔戈里峰/马蓬古布韦边远地区政治的可变性和能动性，有望为研究南非以外正在出现的区域政治提供一个范例。该项目还增加了一个世界性的研究机构，其中考虑周边社区导致对早期政治的更全面的理解。因此，该项目将有助于讨论中美洲、东亚和安第斯山脉等不同地区的政治互动和争论。本研究旨在通过关注更大规模的社会变革与过去主要居住的普通人进行的日常实践之间的关系，来完善早期政治的概念。

Under the supervision of Dr. Roderick J. McIntosh, Alexander Antonites will conduct excavations and analyze data from two archaeological settlements, Mutamba and Vhunyela, located on the periphery of southern Africa's earliest state-like polities, K2 and Mapungubwe, dating from AD1000 to AD1300. The hinterland location of Mutamba and Vhunyela is ideal to study how small-scale communities structure interaction with emerging political centers. Too often, there is an overemphasis on control and homogeneity stemming directly from the more complex center. Excavations and analysis by Antonites will test a model that views this region as comprised of geographically separate but interacting communities. These interactions are believed to be structured locally rather than orchestrated from above.The research is guided by specific questions regarding household identity, patterns of interaction, association and social organization at a community level. In particular, the study aims to identify differences in foodway patterns, access to exotic items and craft production activities between households through comparative excavations of both household and public areas at the two settlement sites. Among the analytical methods to be used are ceramic petrography and Inductively Coupled Mass Plasma Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to trace the source of ceramics. Sourcing ceramics to their manufacturing locales will indicate whether centralized monopolies over production and redistribution patterns existed, or whether the alternative expectation for dispersed local exchange of materials is a better explanation. The geochemical sampling of house floors and courtyards and the flotation of excavated soils will recover small-scale cultural and environmental data. This will be used to test whether expectations for intensified tribute based production are adequate, or whether production was intended to satisfy local needs. Significantly, this project moves beyond the over-emphasis of South African Iron Age studies on ceramic data by simultaneously incorporating multiple lines of evidence from phytolith, starch, ICP-MS, petrographic and macro botanical studies. By using a paradigm that takes interaction patterns and the role of identity into account, the research will contribute to a more nuanced view of variability in the South African past. It is a departure from normative models in South African archaeology and, instead, explores significant variation in material culture. Examining variability and agency on the outlying frontier of the K2/Mapungubwe polity will hopefully provide an example for research on emerging regional polities beyond South Africa. The project also adds to a worldwide body of research in which consideration of peripheral communities results in a more comprehensive understanding of early politics. As such, the project will contribute to debates concerning political interaction and contestation in areas as diverse as Mesoamerica, East Asia, and the Andes. This research is intended to refine conceptions of early politics by focusing on the relationship between larger scale social change and the daily practices carried out by common people who primarily populated the past.