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

这个跨学科的研究项目将集中在语言变化和社会变化对古代文字系统演变的影响。书写是人类历史上最重要的发明之一。它不仅能够在比语音或手语更大的社会尺度上进行交流，而且还有助于在空间和时间上分离的个人之间传播复杂的信息。书写还扩大了人类的记忆，使大量文化知识得以在几代人之间积累和传播。这些能力使写作成为人类历史上为数不多的真正具有变革性的创新之一。尽管这项技术意义重大，但人们对文字的发展及其对更广泛社会事务的影响仍知之甚少。这个项目将由语言学、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古典玛雅文字（大约从公元250年到900年）发展中的作用，古典玛雅文字是被破译的古代文字的最好例子之一。他们将解决一系列与古代文字的关键维度相关的基本问题：(1)语言演变与书面通信系统发展之间的关系，(2)文本的技术生产和抄写社区的组织，以及(3)古代写作传统的社会和历史背景。在这些主题中，他们将通过应用社会科学和进化生物学的新分析技术来评估一组相互竞争的假设，玛雅象形文字数据库是一个独特而全面的经典玛雅文字记录。该项目将对文化和语言多样性、人口动态以及复杂的人类交流网络的发展之间的关系产生重要的新见解。这个项目的发现将极大地完善对经典玛雅文字演变的基本理解，即文本和图像的生产和传播如何影响社会变革。该项目还将展示一套强大的分析技术对研究文化传统演变的价值。这个项目的一个重要成果是玛雅象形文字的全面数字记录，它将在互联网上广泛使用。这个数字档案将吸引公众和更广泛的科学界，包括母语为玛雅语的人和土著学者。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新分析技术的实施。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交流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。本项目由美国国家科学基金会跨学科行为与社会科学研究（IBSS）竞赛资助。

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.