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，松本戈将对2006年和2008年在秘鲁北部拉莱切山谷中段的西卡恩遗址出土的考古材料进行四次单独的分析。该遗址是一个多民族、神权国家的首都，在公元950年至1100年之间蓬勃发展，主要保留用于葬礼和仪式目的。因此，这为研究殡葬实践在社会发展和维护中的作用提供了一个独特的机会。发掘的目标是首都的礼仪核心，包括一个大型的矩形广场和周围有精英墓地的平台土丘，并记录了保存和护理身体的物质痕迹以及广场内的其他同期活动。松本先生提出的四项分析将集中在食物的准备和消费等方面，并探讨其性质及其与殡仪馆实践的关系。松本先生假设，西堪宗教的核心是祖先崇拜，它通过随之而来的宴请活动巩固了这个多元社会。在传统和现代社会中，共同的信仰和做法有助于创造群体认同，促进往往不同的社会因素之间的融合。与宗教和埋葬有关的习俗发挥了这样的作用。因此，这项研究具有当今的现实意义，因为它直接涉及社会凝聚力和促进社会团结和有效运作的因素。在解释为什么实行祖先崇拜时，考古学家强调了祖先崇拜对邪教追随者的经济价值，并认为它帮助他们在继续居住的基础上要求他们对有限的土地和资源的权利。相反，他们很少关注祖先崇拜的意识形态方面，这一点已经被民族志学者很好地记录下来了。松本先生侧重于后一方面，探讨了祖先崇拜作为一种意识形态形式对社会融合和分化的作用，通过死者之间的共生好客和文化内差异，如社会身份和地位。此外，以前对殡仪馆背景的许多研究都不加批判地援引祖先崇拜，没有足够的经验支持，以至于曾被一位英国考古学家谴责过祖先太多。相反，松本先生将对考古学背景和材料进行细致的研究，以参照民族学和民族史学资源更好地描述祖先及其崇拜的特征，并展示人们应该如何对待祖先崇拜，以及需要什么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远古祖先的认同感和欣赏。最近的DNA分析揭示了西卡人和该地区现在的人之间的遗传联系。这项研究的贡献不会局限于地方层面。代表西堪宗教艺术的“西蒙神像”长期以来一直是与现代秘鲁的国家身份直接相关的重要标志(例如，国家旗舰的公司标志和新硬币系列的24个设计中的第一个)。然而，尽管在国家层面上得到了认可和关注，但创造这一形象的理解宗教的本质还没有完全被理解。这一研究将有助于引导人们的兴趣不仅指向代表性形象的美学，而且有助于更好地理解西卡恩宗教及其在秘鲁史前时期的意义。为此目的，将在不同的专业和非专业环境中以不同的语言积极公布数据和结果。

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.