IBSS: Cultural Evolution of Human Communication Systems: Investigating Linguistic Diversity and Social Change with Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

这一跨学科研究项目将侧重于语言变异和社会变化对古代书写系统演变的影响。书写是人类历史上最重要的发明之一。它不仅实现了比语言或手语大得多的社会规模的交流，而且还促进了复杂信息在空间和时间上分离的个人之间的传播。写作还扩展了人类的记忆力，允许在许多世代之间积累和传播大量的文化知识。这些能力使写作成为人类历史上为数不多的真正变革性的创新之一。尽管这项技术意义重大，但人们对写作的发展及其对更广泛的社会事务的影响仍然知之甚少。这个项目将由一个来自语言学、艺术史、考古学和进化人类学的跨学科团队承担。他们将研究语言和社会因素在经典玛雅文字(大约从公元250年到900年)发展中的作用，经典玛雅文字是破译古代文字的最佳范例之一。它们将讨论与古代手稿的关键方面有关的一系列基本问题：(1)语言演变与书面交流系统发展之间的关系，(2)文本的技术生产和经文社区的组织，以及(3)古代书写传统的社会和历史背景。在每个主题中，他们将评估一组相互竞争的假说，方法是将社会科学和进化生物学的新分析技术应用到玛雅象形文字数据库，这是一个独特的、全面的玛雅经典著作记录。该项目将对文化和语言多样性、人口动力学和复杂的人类交流网络之间的关系产生重要的新见解。该项目的发现将极大地完善对玛雅经典文字演变的基本理解，即文本和图像的制作和传播如何影响社会变化。该项目还将展示一套强大的分析技术在研究文化传统演变方面的价值。该项目的一个重要成果是玛雅象形文字的全面数字记录，将在互联网上广泛使用。这个数字档案馆将吸引普通公众和更广泛的科学界，包括以玛雅为母语的人和土著学者。大学和学科之间新的国际伙伴关系将促进社会科学家之间的教学、培训和合作。该项目将吸引来自多个学科的本科生和研究生参与合作研究和进行新的分析技术。项目结果和项目产生的数据将提高理解语言、文化和历史因素对人类通信系统发展的影响的一般能力，这一主题具有相当大的社会相关性。该项目通过NSF跨学科行为和社会科学研究(IBSS)竞赛得到支持。

This interdisciplinary research project will focus on the impact of linguistic variation and social change on the evolution of ancient writing systems. Writing is one of the most important inventions in human history. It not only enables communication at much larger social scales than speech or sign-language, but it also facilitates the spread of complex messages among individuals separated in space and time. Writing also expands human memory, allowing for the accumulation and transmission of large amounts of cultural knowledge across many generations. These capabilities make writing one of the few truly transformative innovations in human history. Despite the significance of this technology, the development of writing and its impact on broader societal affairs remains poorly understood. This project will be undertaken by an interdisciplinary team from linguistics, art history, archaeology, and evolutionary anthropology. They will examine the role of linguistic and social factors in the development of Classic Maya writing (from roughly 250 to 900 AD), one of the best examples of a deciphered ancient script. They will address a set of fundamental questions related to key dimensions of ancient scripts: (1) the relationships between language evolution and the development of written communication systems, (2) the technological production of texts and the organization of scribal communities, and (3) the social and historical contexts of ancient writing traditions. Within each of these topics, they will evaluate a set of competing hypotheses by applying new analytical techniques from the social sciences and evolutionary biology to the Maya Hieroglyphic Database, a unique and comprehensive record of Classic Maya writing.The project will produce important new insights into the relationships between cultural and linguistic diversity, population dynamics, and the development of complex human communication networks. The findings of this project will significantly refine basic understanding of the evolution of Classic Maya writing in terms of how the production and dissemination of texts and images influenced societal change. The project also will demonstrate the value of a powerful set of analytical techniques for studying the evolution of cultural traditions. A significant outcome of this project is a comprehensive digital record of Maya hieroglyphic texts, which will be made widely accessible on the Internet. This digital archive will appeal to the general public and to a broader scientific community, including native Maya speakers and indigenous scholars. New international partnerships among universities and disciplines will promote teaching, training, and collaboration among social scientists. The project will engage undergraduate and graduate students from multiple disciplines in collaborative research and in the conduct of new analytical techniques. Project findings and the data produced by the project will enhance general capabilities to understand the impact of linguistic, cultural, and historical factors on the development of human communication systems, topic with considerable societal relevance. This project is supported through the NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS) competition.