Understanding the Development of Hierarchical Social Organization

本研究的基本目标是更好地理解小规模传统社会合并为更大的社会单位并发展出等级社会组织的过程和机制。研究人员认为，宗教仪式和共同的信仰可以在这一过程中发挥作用，因为在整个历史上，宗教仪式一直伴随着这种发展而发生。这项研究具有当今的相关性，因为宗教的重要性，作为一个整合和分裂的力量，在许多发展中国家的证据。与国家科学基金会的支持下，尼尔博士沃利斯和博士约翰Krigbaum将调查的发展，传播和广泛的宗教仪式之间的影响佛罗里达人口约。公元200年至600年使用各种分析工具和档案研究。 中林地时期的丧葬习俗被称为“韦登岛”，表现出广泛而明显的一致性，这是宗教运动的特征。 这些做法的泛滥显然与日益一体化的社交网络和某些人的高地位相一致。 鉴于这些协会，该项目通过调查人类的饮食，流动性，社会互动和社区形成，探讨韦登岛仪式在启动紧急社会不平等中的作用。 在明显的宗教平等的背景下，这项研究努力确定不同的社区如何相互作用，他们是如何融合的，以及这些趋势如何影响该地区的社会和政治历史。利用分布在佛罗里达半岛的13个中林地土墩遗址的收藏品和存档的实地记录，并在佛罗里达自然历史博物馆（FLMNH）进行策划，这项研究将整合（1）骨骼人口的多线同位素分析，以生成与饮食和流动性有关的数据，（2）骨骼学分析，以收集个人埋葬的基本人口统计学和生活史信息，（3）对韦登岛丧葬器皿进行地球化学和岩相学分析，以确定其最终来源;（4）进行技术功能分析，以概述器皿的形式和功能以及工艺专业化的潜力。此外，韦登岛仪式做法的统一性将通过调查存档的笔记进行评估。 这些数据和变量的相关性将揭示韦登岛仪式的实践和传播及其社会政治影响的特定历史趋势。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括对考古方法和社会理论的贡献，学生的培训，以及公共宣传和教育。在方法方面，分析协议建立在现有技术的基础上，并以创新的方式将它们结合起来。 这些数据提供了一个罕见的多维鲁棒性的调查韦登岛的复杂的区域范围内的现象，允许更细致入微的和潜在的变革性的理解的运动和生活史中林地的人和物体。 在理论层面上，通过对流动性和群体间互动的关注，该项目将对社会不平等原因的研究转向对区域范围内社区形成过程的历史调查，并对解释宗教，身份和政治冲突的交叉点具有人类学意义。 该项目为至少两名博士提供先进的培训和研究经验。学生和几个本科博物馆和实验室实习生，并将形成博士学位的基础。学位论文和文学硕士和荣誉论文。 结果将广泛传播，并通过在FLMNH和配套网站的探索研究展览展示。除科学出版物外，存档数据将在网上免费提供。

The fundamental goal of this research is to better understand the processes and mechanisms by which small scale traditional societies merged into larger social units and developed hierarchical social organization. The investigators believe that religious ritual and shared beliefs can play a role in this process as throughout history religious rituals have been documented occurring alongside such development. This research has current day relevance given the importance of religion as both an integrative and divisive force as evidenced in much of the developing world.With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Neill Wallis and Dr. John Krigbaum will investigate the development, spread, and impact of extensive religious rituals among Florida populations ca. A.D. 200 to 600 using a variety of analytical tools and archival research. The mortuary practices of this Middle Woodland period, referred to as "Weeden Island", show widespread and conspicuous uniformity that is characteristic of a religious movement. The proliferation of these practices was apparently coincident with increasingly integrated social networks and emergent high status for some individuals. Given these associations, the project examines the role of Weeden Island rituality in the initiation of emergent social inequality through investigation of human diet, mobility, social interaction, and community formation. In the context of conspicuous religious parity, this research endeavors to identify exactly how disparate communities interacted with one another, how integrated they were, and how these trends inflected social and political histories in the region. Drawing on collections and archived field notes from 13 Middle Woodland mound sites distributed across peninsular Florida and curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), this research will integrate (1) multiple lines of isotopic analysis of skeletal populations to generate data pertaining to diet and mobility, (2) osteological analysis to collect basic demographic and life history information on individual interments, (3) geochemical and petrographic analysis on Weeden Island mortuary wares to determine their ultimate provenance, and (4) technofunctional analysis to outline form and function of vessels and the potential for craft specialization. In addition, the uniformity of Weeden Island ritual practices will be evaluated through investigation of archived notes. These data and the correlation of variables will reveal specific historical trends in the practice and spread of Weeden Island rituality and its sociopolitical implications. The broader impacts of the study include contributions to archaeological method and social theory, the training of students, and public outreach and education. In terms of method, the analytical protocol builds on established techniques and combines them in innovative ways. These data lend a rare multidimensional robustness to the investigation of the complex region-wide phenomenon of Weeden Island, permitting more nuanced and potentially transformative understandings of the movement and life histories of Middle Woodland people and objects. At a theoretical level, through its focus on mobility and intergroup interactions, the project redirects the search for causes of social inequality toward a historical investigation of the process of community formation at regional scales, and has anthropological implications for explaining the intersections of religion, identity, and political conflict. The project provides advanced training and research experience for at least two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate museum and laboratory interns, and will form the basis for Ph.D. dissertations, and M.A. and honors theses. Results will be disseminated broadly and showcased through an Explore Research exhibit at the FLMNH and a companion website. In addition to scientific publications, archived data will be made freely available online.