Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Integrative role of ancestor veneration in the multiethnic Middle Sican state (AD 950-1100): A perspective from food practices

在岛田泉博士的指导下，松本古将对2006年和2008年在秘鲁北部拉莱切山谷中部Sicán遗址出土的考古材料进行四次独立分析。该遗址是公元950年至1100年间繁荣的多民族神权国家的首都，主要用于葬礼和仪式目的。因此，它提供了一个独特的机会来调查太平间实践在社会发展和维护中的作用。挖掘的目标是首都的仪式核心，它由一个大型矩形广场和周围有精英墓地的平台丘组成，并记录了保存和照顾尸体以及广场内其他同期活动的材料痕迹。松本先生提出的四项分析将重点关注食物的制备和消费，并探讨其性质及其与殡葬实践的关系。松本先生假设Sicán宗教的核心是对祖先的崇拜，它通过随之而来的宴会活动巩固了这个多元社会。在传统社会和现代社会中，共同的信仰和做法有助于创造群体身份，并促进往往不同的社会因素之间的融合。与宗教和葬礼有关的习俗发挥了这样的作用。因此，这项研究具有当今的相关性，因为它直接解决了社会凝聚力问题和促进社会团结和有效功能的因素。在解释祖先崇拜的原因时，考古学家强调了它对邪教信徒的经济价值，并认为这有助于他们在继续占有有限土地和资源的基础上要求他们的权利。相反，他们很少关注祖先崇拜的意识形态方面，这已经被民族志学家很好地记录了。松本先生着重于后一个方面，并探讨了祖先崇拜作为一种意识形态形式的作用，通过社会身份和地位等文化内差异，死者和生者之间的共同款待，实现社会融合和分化。此外，许多先前关于太平间背景的研究都不加批判地援引祖先崇拜，没有足够的经验支持，以至于一位英国考古学家曾经谴责说，那里的祖先太多了。相比之下，松本先生将仔细研究考古背景和材料，以参考民族学和民族历史资源，更好地描述祖先及其崇拜，并展示人们应该如何对待祖先崇拜，以及需要哪些证据才能在考古记录中更恰当地定义祖先崇拜。这项研究的新发现将增强当地对前西班牙人祖先的认同和欣赏。最近的DNA分析揭示了Sicán人和该地区现在的人之间的遗传联系。本研究的贡献将不局限于地方一级。代表Sicán宗教艺术的“Sicán神”长期以来一直是与现代秘鲁的国家身份直接相关的重要图标（例如，国旗航空公司的徽标和新硬币系列24种设计中的第一个）。然而，尽管在全国范围内得到了这样的认可和知名度，但创造这一形象的前西班牙宗教的性质尚未得到充分了解。这项研究将有助于将人们的兴趣不仅指向代表图像的美学，而且还有助于更好地理解Sicán宗教及其在秘鲁史前时期的意义。为此目的，数据和结果将在各种专业和非专业环境中以不同语言积极公开。

Under the guidance of Dr. Izumi Shimada, Go Matsumoto will undertake four separate analyses of archaeological materials excavated in 2006 and 2008 at the site of Sicán in the mid-La Leche Valley, northern Peru. The site was the capital of a multiethnic, theocratic state that flourished between AD 950 and 1100 and was reserved primarily for funerary and ceremonial purposes. Therefore, it provides a unique opportunity to investigate the role of mortuary practice in the social development and maintenance. The excavations targeted the ceremonial core of the capital, which consists of a large rectangular plaza and surrounding platform mounds with elite cemeteries, and documented material traces of preserving and caring the dead bodies as well as other contemporaneous activities within the plaza. The four analyses proposed by Mr. Matsumoto will focus on the food preparation and consumption among others and explore its nature and relation to the mortuary practice. Mr. Matsumoto hypothesizes that central to the Sicán religion was ancestor veneration, and that it served to consolidate this plural society through attendant feasting activities.In traditional as well as modern societies shared beliefs and practices serve to create group identity and promote integration among often disparate social elements. Practices relating to religion and burial play such a role. Thus this study has present day relevance because it directly addresses issues of social cohesion and factors which promote social solidarity and effective function.When explaining why ancestor veneration was practiced, archaeologists have emphasized its economic merits for the cult followers and argued that it helped them demand their rights for limited lands and resources on the basis of their continued occupancy. Contrarily, they have paid little attention to the ideological aspect of ancestor cult, which has been well documented by ethnographers. Mr. Matsumoto focuses on the latter aspect and explores the role of ancestor veneration as a form of ideology for social integration and differentiation through commensal hospitality among the dead and the living of intracultural variability such as social identity and status. Furthermore, many previous studies of mortuary contexts have uncritically invoked ancestor veneration without sufficient empirical support to the point that it was once decried by a British archaeologist that there were too many ancestors. In contrast, Mr. Matsumoto will take a meticulous look at both archaeological contexts and materials to better characterize ancestors and their veneration with reference to ethnological and ethnohistorical resources, and demonstrate how one should approach ancestor veneration and what evidence one would need in order to more appropriately define it in archaeological record.New findings from this study will enhance the local identity and appreciation of prehispanic predecessors literally as remote ancestors. Recent DNA analyses revealed a genetic link between the Sicán and the present people of the area. The contribution of this study will not be confined to the local level. The "Sicán Deity" that represents the Sicán religious art has long been an important icon directly linked to the national identity of modern-day Peru (e.g., the company logo of the national flag carrier and the first of 24 designs for the new coin series). In spite of such a national-level recognition and visibility, however, the nature of the prehispanic religion that created this image is yet to be fully understood. This study will help to orient people's interests not only toward the aesthetics of the representative image, but also toward a better understanding of the Sicán religion and its significance in the Peruvian prehistory. For these purposes, the data and results will be actively made public in different languages in various settings, professional and non-professional.