Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigations of the Rural Maya Community

在辛西娅·罗宾博士的指导下，圣地亚哥·华雷斯先生将为他的博士论文进行研究。他的项目将探讨一个外围农业社区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。 晚期至晚期经典通常被称为“衰落”时期，由于许多强大的玛雅城市的衰落和放弃。 然而，近几十年来，考古学家已经证明了不同地区，特别是农村周边地区政治和经济不稳定的不同影响。 华雷斯先生特别感兴趣的是，确定是否规模，组织和位置的能工巧匠允许它发展的时期，许多低地玛雅政治正在下降或崩溃。 Noh K 'uh位于南部低地的一部分，缺乏一个大的主导力量，并代表了一个独特的机会，研究一个外围社区，距离最近的城市政体超过40公里。 在这项研究中，华雷斯先生将探讨距离，小网站的大小，和社区组织的其他方面可能有绝缘的政治动荡，界定了终端经典在南部玛雅低地大部分地区的能工巧匠的程度;因此，更大的复杂性可能确实会导致更大的不稳定性。 本研究探讨社会科学研究的核心问题：农村和城市之间的关系以及使社会稳定的因素。 由于复杂的前工业文明中的大多数人都生活在城市之外，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。 在Noh K 'uh的研究将阐明谁选择住在周边地区的农村人的社会，政治和经济关系。 最终，这项研究将确定较小和不太复杂的社区是否比发展中更复杂的城邦更适合在动荡时期生存。这种情况在今天第三世界的许多地区都有反映。该项目将在实验室分析阶段将西北大学的本科生纳入其中。 人类学系定期对学生进行实验室方法培训，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，Juarez先生将培训本科生协助进行微制品和土壤化学分析。 这项研究还将在会议上发表，并发表在美国和墨西哥的同行评审期刊上。 研究结果将定期在Mensabak向西北大学的学生，埃文斯顿的当地社区，以及与芝加哥伊利诺斯大学的Rebecca Deeb一起建立的网站的准备工作。

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.