Doctoral Dissertation Research: Creating a Spatial History Methodology to Assess Past and Current Settlement and Governance

博士论文研究：创建空间历史方法来评估过去和当前的定居和治理

• 批准号: 1433920
• 负责人: Charles Walker
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2017-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1433920&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Creating; Spatial

This dissertation research project examines the largely unexplored spatiality of conquest, the conflicts over the emerging spatial order during the decades that followed, and how these conflicts have been or could be represented differently from conquering versus indigenous groups. To do so, the researchers will develop a spatial history methodology that incorporates GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software for the visualization and analysis of historical data across space as well as time. In this way, spatial history can serve as a form of virtual history: a way to reconstruct or re-imagine a different world with all the possibility it held for its diverse inhabitants. Though GIS has long been known for spatial capabilities, the temporal dimension has been slower to follow suite, particularly in cultural studies. Using Historical GIS to answer the spatial questions (e.g., how far did colonial power reach?) can in turn lend answers to deeper questions about just what conquest meant and in what ways it failed or succeeded. As a result, more people will be able to actually "see" local/indigenous knowledge as a possible means to assist in solving local and regional problems, expanding the lessons learned in a variety of pasts in a way that informs twenty-first century challenges. To answer these questions, the researchers will employ a hybrid quantitative-qualitative GIS methodology that will accommodate the typically less precise, qualitative information found in colonial-era historical sources, including conflicting understandings of the world. For example, using GIS to reconstruct the hidden spatial narratives of historical sources, a series of maps will be created showing the degree of power and autonomy indigenous people wielded away from imperial centers such as cities and ports. Recent historical research, largely coming from a cultural perspective, has challenged the myth that the European conquest of indigenous societies in the Americas was quick, absolute, universal, and complete. However, conquest was as much a spatial phenomenon as a cultural one. Unlike the maps that still tend to be more commonly used in textbooks that typically show the Americas neatly divided among Spanish, French, British, and Portuguese spaces, a different representation of contested colonial territories would be pockmarked with holes and shaded with gradients showing overlapping or partial control, indicating regions outside full colonial purview. The Peruvian Andes' environmental diversity along with the dramatic changes brought by the European invasion (beginning in 1532) as well as the Columbian Exchange makes the sixteenth-century Andes a rich and compelling case study for understanding an equally transformative and volatile period: the twenty-first century with the growing problems caused by global capitalism, rapid urbanization, and climate shifts. The results from this spatial analysis will be shared with the academic community through a series of talks and papers in Peru, North America, and Spain and with the general public through the creation of an online geo-historical database.

本论文研究项目研究了很大程度上未被探索的征服的空间性、随后几十年中新兴空间秩序的冲突，以及这些冲突已经或可能如何以不同于征服群体和土著群体的方式表现出来。为此，研究人员将开发一种空间历史方法，该方法结合了 GIS（地理信息系统）软件，用于跨空间和时间的历史数据的可视化和分析。通过这种方式，空间历史可以作为虚拟历史的一种形式：一种重建或重新想象一个不同世界的方式，以及它为不同居民提供的所有可能性。尽管 GIS 长期以来因其空间功能而闻名，但时间维度的跟进速度较慢，尤其是在文化研究中。使用历史 GIS 来回答空间问题（例如，殖民势力达到了多远？）反过来又可以回答更深层次的问题，例如征服意味着什么以及它以何种方式失败或成功。因此，更多的人将能够真正“看到”当地/土著知识作为协助解决当地和区域问题的一种可能手段，以一种为二十一世纪的挑战提供信息的方式扩展在各种过去吸取的经验教训。 为了回答这些问题，研究人员将采用混合定量-定性 GIS 方法，该方法将适应殖民时代历史资料中通常不太精确的定性信息，包括对世界的相互冲突的理解。例如，使用地理信息系统重建历史来源的隐藏空间叙述，将创建一系列地图，显示土著人民在城市和港口等帝国中心之外行使的权力和自治程度。最近的历史研究主要从文化角度出发，对欧洲人对美洲土著社会的征服是快速、绝对、普遍和彻底的神话提出了挑战。然而，征服既是一种空间现象，也是一种文化现象。与教科书中更常用的地图不同，这些地图通常将美洲整齐地划分为西班牙、法国、英国和葡萄牙的空间，而对有争议的殖民地领土的不同表示将布满孔洞，并用显示重叠或部分控制的渐变阴影，表示完全殖民范围之外的区域。秘鲁安第斯山脉的环境多样性以及欧洲入侵（自 1532 年开始）以及哥伦布交换所带来的巨大变化，使 16 世纪的安第斯山脉成为一个丰富而引人注目的案例研究，可以帮助我们理解同样充满变革和动荡的时期：21 世纪，全球资本主义、快速城市化和气候变化造成的问题日益严重。该空间分析的结果将通过在秘鲁、北美和西班牙举行的一系列讲座和论文与学术界分享，并通过创建在线地理历史数据库与公众分享。