Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Community Organization In Capital Cities

城市是政治、经济、宗教和社会生活的中心。了解它们如何运作的一个关键方法是通过调查它们的社会和空间组织，从社区、地区和种族群体的形成和互动方式来看。与布局更加分散的花园城市相比，紧凑且高度集中的城市以不同的方式发挥作用。作为大国首都的城市提供了有关政治组织和统治性质的独特信息，因为它们是社会领导人和中央机构的所在地。首都可能由一个集中的单一管理机构主导，也可能包含多个机构，这表明统治形式更加分散。考古学特别适合研究首都城市的社会关系，因为它可以追踪城市形成和变化的长期轨迹及其与政治权力和治国方略的关系。在伊丽莎白·阿库什博士的指导下，博士生加布里埃拉·塞万提斯将研究秘鲁西坎首都的社会组织，重点是城市组织和互动、国内经济和生存实践、经济分化、权力关系和治国方略。该项目将为来自各大学的美国和秘鲁学生提供当代考古技术的培训。所获得的信息将为塞万提斯的论文奠定基础，并将在秘鲁西坎国家博物馆为当地社区举行的公开演讲中展示；详细数据将通过匹兹堡大学比较考古学中心的网页提供。研究人员将研究城市模式和城市生活如何涉及社会关系、经济和权力。秘鲁的西坎州是美洲冶金技术和长途贸易最发达的社会之一。该研究将涉及对城市进行全覆盖调查、系统地表收集和测绘的计划。获得的数据将用于确定首都的居住性质、规模、密度和城市布局以及居民的社会经济分化和经济职业。该研究将扩展当前对城市变异性、社区形成以及城市紧凑与分散居住区的看法。此外，该研究还将调查权力的构建和实践方式，并利用这些信息来完善和比较当前的治国方略和社会政治轨迹的构建。

Cities are at the center of political, economic, religious and social life. A key way to understand how they function is through the investigation of their social and spatial organization, seen in the way neighborhoods, districts and ethnic groups form and interact. Compact and highly centralized cities function in different ways when compared to garden cities with more dispersed layouts. Cities that are capitals of large states provide unique information on political organization and the nature of rulership since they are home to a society's leaders and central institutions. A capital city may be dominated by a centralized single governing institution, or may contain several, suggesting a more segmented form of rulership. Archaeology is particularly well suited to study social relations in capital cities as it can trace long term trajectories of city formation and change and their relationship with political power and statecraft. Under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Arkush, the doctoral candidate Gabriela Cervantes will study the social organization of the Sican capital city in Peru, with emphasis on urban organization and interaction, domestic economies and subsistence practices, economic differentiation and power relations and statecraft. This project will provide training to US and Peruvian students from various universities in contemporary archeological techniques. The information obtained, which will provide the basis for Cervantes' dissertation, will also be presented in a public talk in the Sican National Museum in Peru for the local community; detailed data will be made available through the Center for Comparative Archaeology of the University of Pittsburgh webpage.The researcher will examine how urban patterns and city life involve social relations, economy and power. The Sican state in Peru was one of the most developed societies in metallurgy technology and long distance trade in the Americas. The research will involve a program of full coverage survey, systematic surface collection and mapping of the city. The data obtained will be used to address the residential nature of the capital, its size, density and urban layout and the socioeconomic differentiation and economic occupation of its residents. The research will expand current views of urban variability and neighborhood formation and compact versus dispersed settlements in cities. Further, the research will investigate how power is structured and practiced, and use this information to refine and compare current constructs of statecraft and sociopolitical trajectories.