Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigations of the Rural Maya Community

在Cynthia Robin博士的指导下，Santiago Juarez先生将为他的博士论文进行研究。他的项目将探索边缘农业社区Noh K'uh在古典玛雅晚期（公元700-950年）复杂的经济和政治格局中的作用。由于许多强大的玛雅城市的衰落和废弃，晚期到晚期经典通常被称为“崩溃”时期。然而，近几十年来，考古学家已经证明了政治和经济不稳定对不同地区，特别是农村边缘地区的不同影响。华雷斯先生特别感兴趣的是确定Noh K'uh的规模、组织和位置是否允许它在许多低地玛雅政治衰落或崩溃的时期发展起来。Noh K'uh位于南部低地，缺乏大型主导力量，为研究距离最近的城市政体40多公里的外围社区提供了独特的机会。在这项研究中，Juarez先生将探索距离、小遗址规模和社区组织的其他方面在多大程度上使Noh K'uh免受政治动荡的影响，而政治动荡在玛雅南部低地的大部分地区定义了终端经典；因此，更大的复杂性确实可能导致更大的不稳定性。本研究探讨了社会科学研究中的核心问题：农村和城市之间的关系以及使社会稳定的因素。由于在复杂的前工业化文明中，大多数人生活在城市之外，农村和周边地区提供了分析复杂社会系统如何运作的重要手段。Noh K'uh的研究将阐明选择居住在外围地区的农村人口的社会、政治和经济关系。最终，这项研究将确定规模较小且不太复杂的社区是否比发展更复杂的城市国家更能在动荡时期生存下来。这种情况今天反映在第三世界的许多地区。该项目将在实验室分析阶段整合西北大学的本科生。人类学系定期对学生进行实验方法培训，以提供相关经验，并为本科生提供高级论文的数据集。为了及时完成这项分析，华雷斯先生将培训本科生协助进行微制品和土壤化学分析。这项研究也将在会议上发表，并在美国和墨西哥的同行评议期刊上发表。研究成果将定期在Mensabak向西北大学的学生和埃文斯顿当地社区展示，并准备与伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的丽贝卡·迪布（Rebecca Deeb）合作建立一个网站。

Under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Robin Mr. Santiago Juarez will conduct research for his doctoral dissertation. His project will explore the role of a peripheral farming community, Noh K'uh, in the complex economic and political landscape of the Late to Terminal Classic Maya (A.D. 700-950). The Late to Terminal Classic is commonly referred to as the period of 'collapse', due to the decline and abandonment of many powerful Maya cities. Yet, in recent decades archaeologists have demonstrated the differing effects of political and economic instability in various regions, particularly the rural periphery. Mr. Juarez is specifically interested in determining if the size, organization, and location of Noh K'uh allowed it to develop during a period in which many lowland Maya polities were declining or collapsing. Noh K'uh is situated in a part of the southern lowlands that lack a large dominant power, and represents a unique opportunity to study a peripheral community that is more than 40 kilometers from the closest urban polity. In this study, Mr. Juarez will explore the extent to which distance, small site size, and other aspects of community organization may have insulated Noh K'uh from the political turbulence that defined the Terminal Classic across much of the southern Maya lowlands; thus, greater complexity may indeed lead to greater instability. This research examines central questions in social science research: the relationship between rural and urban places and the factors that make societies stable. Since most people in complex preindustrial civilizations lived outside of cities, rural and peripheral regions offer an important means of analyzing how complex social systems worked. Research at Noh K'uh will elucidate the social, political, and economic relations of rural people who chose to live in peripheral regions. Ultimately, this research will determine if smaller and less complex communities are better placed to survive during tumultuous times than the developmentally more complex city states. This situation finds reflection in many areas of the Third World today.The project will integrate undergraduates from Northwestern during the laboratory analysis phase. The department of Anthropology regularly trains students in laboratory methods to provide relevant experience and to provide undergraduates with data sets for senior theses. To complete this analysis in a timely manner, Mr. Juarez will train undergraduates to assist in the microartifact and soil chemical analyses. This research will also be presented at conferences and published in peer-review journals both the United States and Mexico. Research results will be presented regularly at Mensabak, to students at Northwestern, the local community in Evanston, and the preparation of a web site that will be constructed in conjunction with Rebecca Deeb of University at Illinois at Chicago.