Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Technological Innovation in the Upper Great Lakes

在Sissel Schroeder博士的监督下，石楠瓦尔德将对现有的人工制品进行新的分析，这些人工制品来自威斯康星州、密歇根州和伊利诺伊州的大约35个美洲原住民村庄遗址，这些遗址大约在公元1630年至1730年之间被占领。这一时期，上五大湖地区的原始居民、流离失所的土著新来者和欧洲探险家之间的早期互动导致了杂交的多民族社区，这种社区一直持续到法国殖民时期。瓦尔德女士正在研究这个社会、经济和政治动态时期的几个重要方面：1）随着时间的推移，个人装饰品所表达的物质实践和社会身份的表现发生了变化; 2）用于将欧洲材料（如铜基水壶）转化为装饰品的技术的区域差异;玻璃珠化学成分的空间和时间模式，反映了该区域玻璃珠贸易的范围和时间。研究具有社会意义的装饰品的生产和交换，将有助于从技术和物质文化的角度阐明全球规模的互动和贸易的开端。这个项目有助于最近的理论讨论的身份在文化接触和早期殖民地的情况。与早期接触更为持续的东北部或殖民地夏威夷等岛屿环境相比，上五大湖地区早期与欧洲的接触并不频繁且断断续续，这使得它可以被视为历史记录的杂交和多民族的地区。Walder女士将应用的主要方法是铜基金属饰品的物理属性分析和玻璃珠的化学成分分析。通过比较化学性质相似的玻璃珠的发现点与历史地图上标记的同时代考古遗址和离散的原住民占领区的分布，可以确定社会上不同的群体是否可以获得不同的欧洲材料，或者访问模式是否随着时间的推移而改变。通过对金属饰品及其制造过程中产生的废料碎片进行属性分析，可以比较当代不同社会群体的金属加工实践，以了解社会身份是否或如何影响饰品生产过程。瓦尔德女士的研究表明，使用相对较新的分析方法调查未出版或出版不足的收藏品具有潜在价值，这些方法在早期研究中没有使用或无法使用。这项研究将产生一个联机数据集，对全世界从事接触文化和殖民世界起源研究的人类学家有用。结果将在同行评议的出版物中传播，并通过在整个中西部的各种场所公开演示。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括更新博物馆策展策略和解释性展示，并让后代社区参与研究过程。在与博物馆藏品合作的同时，Walder女士将组织和整理原始的实地记录，查找丢失的文物信息，重新包装急需保护的文物，协助策展人识别历史文物，并与策展人合作，以确保继续研究藏品。几个策展机构计划在马德琳岛博物馆和岩石岛州立公园等地举办更新的解释性展览，展示瓦尔德女士的研究成果。 最后，本研究项目将促进与后代Meskwaki，Menominee和Ho-Chunk社区成员在中西部的关系和合作。

Under the supervision of Dr. Sissel Schroeder, Heather Walder will conduct new analyses of existing artifact collections from approximately thirty-five Native American village sites in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois that were occupied between roughly AD 1630 and 1730. This time of early interactions among the Upper Great Lakes region's original inhabitants, displaced Native newcomers, and European explorers resulted in hybridized, multiethnic communities that persisted into the French Colonial period. Ms. Walder is investigating several important aspects of this socially, economically, and politically dynamic period: 1) changes through time in the material practices and performance of social identity as expressed in personal ornaments; 2) regional variation in the technologies used to transform European materials, such as copper-based kettles, into adornments; and 3) spatial and temporal patterns in the chemical composition of glass beads, which reflect the extent and timing of glass bead trade in the region. Studying the production and exchange of socially-meaningful adornments will help to clarify the beginnings of global-scale interaction and trade from the standpoint of technology and material culture. This project contributes to recent theoretical discussions of identity in cultural contact and early colonial situations. In contrast with the Northeast or island settings like colonial Hawaii, where early contact was more sustained, the Upper Great Lakes region experienced infrequent and intermittent early European contacts, allowing it to be examined as a locale of historically documented hybridity and multi-ethnicity. The primary methods that Ms. Walder will apply are physical attribute analysis of copper-based metal ornaments and chemical compositional analysis of glass beads. By comparing the find-spots of chemically similar glass beads to the distribution of contemporaneous archaeological sites and discrete Native occupation areas as labeled on historic maps, it may be possible to determine if socially distinct groups had access to different European materials or if access patterns changed through time. Attribute analysis of metal ornaments and waste fragments that result from their manufacture will allow the comparison of metal-working practices of different contemporary social groups, in order to understand if or how social identity influences the ornament production process. Ms. Walder's research demonstrates the potential value of investigating unpublished or under-published collections using relatively new analysis methods that were not used or were unavailable for earlier studies. This research will produce an on-line data set useful for anthropologists worldwide who are engaged in the study of cultures in contact and the beginnings of the colonial world. Results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and through public presentations in various venues throughout the Midwest. Broader impacts of this research include updating of museum curation strategies and interpretive displays and involving descendant communities in the research process. While working with the museum collections, Ms. Walder will organize and digitize original field notes, locate missing artifact information, repackage artifacts in dire need of conservation, assist curators in the identification of historic artifacts, and collaborate with curators to ensure continued research accessibility to the collections. Updated interpretive displays that present the results of Ms. Walder's study are planned at several curating institutions, including the Madeline Island Museum and Rock Island State Park. Finally, this research project will foster relationships and collaborations with descendant Meskwaki, Menominee, and Ho-Chunk community members in the Midwest.