Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Regime Development in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin

该项目的基本目标是确定在小规模社会中有助于创建综合社会群体的机制。它将提供如何建立和维持控制的洞察力，这个问题具有当代意义，因为当今世界存在许多具有类似复杂程度的社会。在Peter Lape博士的指导下，安娜科恩将评估私人和公共环境中陶瓷生产和消费的差异，以研究墨西哥古城Angamuco内Purépecha（塔拉斯坎）政权发展的变化。该项目将检验Purépecha发展模式的核心假设，研究居住在Pátzcuaro盆地帝国核心地区的居民是通过代理人领导的社会政治实践还是通过自上而下的控制过程融入的。这些假设将通过（1）在新记录的Angamuco遗址挖掘家庭和公共建筑特征，以及（2）从挖掘中恢复的陶瓷文物的形态，风格和地球化学分析进行测试。这项研究将使用陶瓷类型学和放射性碳测年法制作一份当地年表，这将有助于更广泛地区的时间序列。生产的阶段间和阶段内变化将与家庭和公共消费活动的变化进行比较。古代政治增长和巩固的研究提供了深入了解政治制度如何发展和维持权力，这是整个社会科学的重要课题，特别是对公众的重要性，其中政权更迭，革命和抵抗的过程正在世界上的几个地区进行。该项目强调，考古学家必须评估政权主体关系的微观政治，然后才能对政权行为作出广泛的陈述。对于墨西哥西部，Purépecha政权发展的研究将大大改变该地区现有的史前史，并有助于更精确的占领和社会复杂性年表。虽然Purépecha在战斗中击败了更着名的阿兹特克人，他们的后代目前生活在墨西哥西部，但帝国仍然知之甚少。通过关注Angamuco的当地陶瓷生产和消费过程-帝国核心地区发现的最大和最复杂的遗址之一-这项研究将测试有关Purépecha发展模式的一些基本假设，包括政治经济控制和意识形态变化是如何发生的。对陶瓷的详细研究，可以使用建筑，地层学和放射性碳数据仔细定年，这将有助于Pátzcuaro盆地的年代学。这对墨西哥西部未来的研究至关重要，对在包括墨西哥盆地在内的附近地区工作的学者也很有用。该项目的更广泛影响包括在帕茨夸罗湖流域和美国的社区开展教育和外联活动。社区成员将在周末进行现场图尔斯参观，联合PI将根据项目研究帮助为当地学童编写教材，这将增加Tzintzuntzan遗产理事会社区中心的保护工作。这项研究将有助于培训来自许多不同背景的年轻科学家，并将促进几个机构之间的国际关系。与韧性项目（LORE-LPB）的遗产工作，科恩将继续与来自墨西哥，法国和美国的学生合作。这些合作的成果已经在国家会议上介绍，例如由共同参与者共同组织的2011年美国考古学会会议，以及在科罗拉多和法国的研讨会上介绍。正在进行的实地调查的更新将发布在LORE-LPB博客上，结果将用于华盛顿大学的本科教学材料。

The fundamental goal of the project is to determine the mechanisms which, in small scale societies, serve to create integrated social groups. It will provide insight into how control is established and maintained, and this issue has contemporary relevance since many societies at similar levels of complexity exist in the world today. Under the guidance of Dr. Peter Lape, Anna Cohen will assess differences in ceramic production and consumption from private and public contexts to examine changes in Purépecha (Tarascan) regime development within the ancient city of Angamuco, Mexico. This project will test assumptions central to Purépecha development models by examining whether residents living in the Pátzcuaro Basin imperial core region were integrated through agent-led sociopolitical practices or through top-down processes of control. These hypotheses will be tested through (1) excavation of domestic and public architectural features at the newly documented site of Angamuco, and (2) the morphological, stylistic, and geochemical analysis of ceramic artifacts recovered from excavation. This research will produce a local chronology using ceramic typologies and radiocarbon dating, which will contribute to the temporal sequence for the wider region. Inter- and intra-phase variation in production will be compared to changes in household and public consumption activities. The study of ancient political growth and consolidation provides insight into understanding of how political regimes develop and maintain power, which are important topics throughout the social sciences and of particular importance to the general public where processes of regime change, revolution, and resistance are ongoing in several parts of the world. This project emphasizes that archaeologists must evaluate the micropolitics of regime-subject relations before making broad statements about regime behavior. For western Mexico, this study of Purépecha regime development will substantially alter the existing prehistory of the region and contribute to a more refined chronology of occupation and social complexity. Although the Purépecha defeated the better-known Aztecs in battle and their descendants currently live in western Mexico, the empire remains poorly understood. By focusing on local ceramic production and consumption processes at Angamuco - one of the largest and most complex sites uncovered in the imperial core region - this research will test some of the basic assumptions concerning Purépecha development models including how political economic control and ideological changes occurred on the ground. Detailed study of ceramics that can be carefully dated using architecture, stratigraphy, and radiocarbon data will contribute to the chronology for the Pátzcuaro Basin. This is vital for future research in western Mexico and useful for scholars working in nearby regions including the Basin of Mexico. The broader impacts of this project include educational and outreach activities in communities located in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin and in the U.S. This project will continue to work with the Fontezuelas ejido community for advice and to present ongoing research at the local primary school. Site tours will be given to community members on the weekends and the Co-PI will help to create teaching materials for local schoolchildren based on project research which will add to the conservation efforts at the heritage council community center in Tzintzuntzan. This research will aid in the training of young scientists from many different backgrounds, and will foster international relationships between several institutions. Working with the Legacies of Resilience Project (LORE-LPB), Cohen will continue to collaborate with students from Mexico, France, and the United States. Results from these collaborations have already been presented at national meetings, such as a 2011 Society for American Archaeology conference session co-organized by the Co-PI, and at workshops in Colorado and France. Updates from ongoing fieldwork will be posted on the LORE-LPB blog and the results will be used in undergraduate teaching material at the University of Washington.