Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigating Restricted Knowledge in the Reproduction of Precontact Coast Salish Lithic Traditions

博士论文改进补助金：调查接触前海岸萨利希石器传统复制中的有限知识

• 批准号: 1308369
• 负责人: Colin Grier
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1308369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Investigating

Does the way people learn technical craft skills fundamentally change with the appearance of social inequality in small scale societies? Under the direction of Dr. Colin Grier, Adam N. Rorabaugh of Washington State University will conduct research using existing archaeological research collections, to examine sites from the past 4,000 years in the Salish Sea (Northwestern Washington and Southwestern British Columbia). Archaeologists studying the emergence of social inequality and leadership have often examined prestige exchange items thought to have been used or controlled by chiefs and elites such as exotic jade, dentalia shells, volcanic glass, native coppers, and ground stone bowls. Taking a different but complimentary approach, this research examines stone tools used for every-day activities such as hunting and fishing to determine how their manufacture changed after the emergence of large sedentary villages, systems of resource ownership, and intensive storage economies on the Northwest Coast. The central hypothesis is that certain tool technologies will become less variable because the knowledge needed to produce them became more tightly controlled by elites after the emergence of more structured systems of social inequality.In a broader context, this project examines how knowledge is produced and managed in small scale societies, and the ways in which control of knowledge changes with increasing social inequality. The focus of this project on stone tool technologies of the Northwest Coast will further understanding of how the production and reproduction of technical craft training was restricted in these societies. Learning how knowledge is produced and controlled is critical to understanding how social inequality becomes entrenched in hereditary forms.Although anthropologists have long studied the emergence of social inequality and the control of resources, the impacts these fundamental societal transformations have had for social learning, and how knowledge itself represents a controlled resource, have been less systematically examined. Based on oral traditions, many forms of knowledge in Northwest Coast societies are controlled including songs, stories, and resource gathering locations. If craft skills became a controlled resource, there should be increased uniformity in the styles of stone tools as knowledge was more restricted to elites through time. Restricted craft knowledge means fewer teachers, and with fewer teachers there would be a smaller pool of potential styles. This shift should be evident through time in the archaeological record. Stone tools can provide strong evidence for how people learned in the past as they require a high degree of skill and knowledge to produce. Both chipped stone and ground stone tools will be examined in this project, as they each have unique production constraints as well as functional applications, and therefore will allow for the identification of variation caused by both the materials used in their manufacture and the degree to which knowledge used in their production was restricted.Archaeological sites to be examined include shell middens and villages dating from the past 4,000 years. The tool collections are housed at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, Western Washington University, the Burke Museum, and Royal British Columbia Museum. All chipped and ground stone tools traditionally used as knives, arrows, spears, and harpoons within the geographic scope of the study will be analyzed, focusing on the hafting areas of these tools. Based on these criteria, a total of 70 sites will be examined, with a sample size of 3,600 artifacts. The data generated through the examination of these collections will be at a resolution higher than any previous study, and so will provide a detailed view of social learning processes over time and space in the Salish Sea.Understanding the impact of social inequality on every day practices remains one of anthropology's most important contributions. This study will makes a small but concrete contribution to this larger question. More specifically, this project provides an opportunity to explore the ways in which traditional knowledge of stone tool production was held in small scale societies, and contributes to a greater understanding of forms of transmission of traditional knowledge and resource management practices. The key aim of this study, reconstructing the learning processes of past stone tool traditions through archaeological data, will highlight the connections between past and present knowledge, and demonstrate the meaningful contributions archaeology can make towards reconstructing how knowledge in indigenous communities was traditionally produced, consumed, and conveyed down generations.

人们学习技术技能的方式是否会随着小规模社会中社会不平等的出现而从根本上改变？在 Colin Grier 博士的指导下，华盛顿州立大学的 Adam N. Rorabaugh 将利用现有的考古研究藏品进行研究，以检查萨利希海（华盛顿西北部和不列颠哥伦比亚省西南部）过去 4000 年的遗址。研究社会不平等和领导力出现的考古学家经常检查被认为是由酋长和精英使用或控制的声望交换物品，例如奇异的玉石、齿科贝壳、火山玻璃、天然铜和磨石碗。这项研究采用了一种不同但互补的方法，研究了用于狩猎和捕鱼等日常活动的石器，以确定在西北海岸出现大型定居村庄、资源所有权系统和集约化储存经济之后，石器的制造发生了怎样的变化。核心假设是，某些工具技术的可变性将降低，因为在出​​现更加结构化的社会不平等体系后，生产这些工具所需的知识受到精英更加严格的控制。在更广泛的背景下，该项目研究了小规模社会中知识的生产和管理方式，以及知识控制随着社会不平等的加剧而变化的方式。该项目的重点是西北海岸的石器技术，将进一步了解这些社会中技术工艺培训的生产和复制是如何受到限制的。了解知识是如何产生和控制的，对于理解社会不平等如何以遗传形式根深蒂固至关重要。尽管人类学家长期以来一直在研究社会不平等的出现和资源控制，但这些基本的社会变革对社会学习的影响，以及知识本身如何代表受控资源，却很少得到系统的研究。基于口头传统，西北海岸社会的许多形式的知识都受到控制，包括歌曲、故事和资源收集地点。如果工艺技能成为一种受控资源，那么随着时间的推移，知识更多地局限于精英阶层，石器工具的风格就会更加统一。有限的工艺知识意味着更少的教师，而教师越少，潜在的风格就会越少。随着时间的推移，这种转变在考古记录中应该是显而易见的。石器可以为人们过去如何学习提供有力的证据，因为它们需要高度的技能和知识来生产。该项目将检查碎石工具和磨制石器，因为它们各自具有独特的生产限制和功能应用，因此将允许识别由制造中使用的材料和生产中使用的知识受到限制的程度引起的变化。要检查的考古遗址包括距今 4,000 年的贝冢和村庄。这些工具收藏于西蒙弗雷泽大学、不列颠哥伦比亚大学、西华盛顿大学、伯克博物馆和皇家不列颠哥伦比亚博物馆。将分析研究地理范围内传统上用作刀、箭、矛和鱼叉的所有碎石和磨石工具，重点关注这些工具的柄部区域。根据这些标准，总共将检查 70 个地点，样本量为 3,600 件文物。通过检查这些藏品生成的数据的分辨率将高于以前的任何研究，因此将提供萨利希海随时间和空间的社会学习过程的详细视图。了解社会不平等对日常实践的影响仍然是人类学最重要的贡献之一。这项研究将为这个更大的问题做出微小但具体的贡献。更具体地说，该项目提供了一个机会，探索石器生产的传统知识在小规模社会中的持有方式，并有助于更好地了解传统知识的传播形式和资源管理实践。这项研究的主要目的是通过考古数据重建过去石器传统的学习过程，将强调过去和现在知识之间的联系，并展示考古学可以为重建土著社区知识传统上如何生产、消费和传承的方式做出有意义的贡献。