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。他的项目将探索边缘农业社区能可在玛雅晚期经典时期(公元700-950)复杂的经济和政治格局中所扮演的角色。由于许多强大的玛雅城市的衰落和抛弃，晚期到终点站的经典通常被称为“崩溃”时期。然而，近几十年来，考古学家已经证明了不同地区政治和经济不稳定的不同影响，特别是农村边缘地区。华雷斯特别感兴趣的是，能库的规模、组织和位置是否允许它在许多玛雅低地政体衰落或崩溃的时期发展起来。能古位于南部低地的一部分，缺乏一个强大的主导力量，这是一个研究距离最近的城市政体40多公里的外围社区的独特机会。在这项研究中，华雷斯先生将探索距离、小场地规模和社区组织的其他方面可能在多大程度上使能库免受政治动荡的影响，正是这种动荡定义了玛雅南部大部分低地的《终结者经典》；因此，更复杂的情况确实可能导致更大的不稳定。这项研究考察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以外，农村和周边地区为分析复杂的社会制度是如何运作的提供了重要手段。能库的研究将阐明选择居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，与发展中更复杂的城邦相比，规模较小、复杂程度较低的社区是否更适合在动荡时期生存。这种情况今天在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吸收来自西北大学的本科生。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，华雷斯先生将对本科生进行培训，帮助他们进行微量人工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议期刊上。研究成果将定期在门萨巴克向西北大学的学生、埃文斯顿当地社区的学生介绍，并准备与伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的丽贝卡·迪布一起建立一个网站。

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.