The Development Of Extensive Geographic Networks And Social Complexity

长期以来，研究人员一直试图了解广泛分散和移动的社区之间的互动如何以及为什么会合并成更大，更复杂和固定的社会政治实体。 以前关于这一主题的学术研究集中在生态和人口因素上，这些因素使久坐不动的生活方式成为必要。 特别是人口增长和农业的采用经常被认为是这一演变过程中的关键因素。 考古学现在处于有利地位，通过关注古代景观中人和文物的实际运动和融合，对这一关键转变有了更微妙的理解。 在这个项目中，来自佛罗里达大学的Kenneth Sassaman博士和Zackary Gilmore博士通过追踪代表北美最古老的陶器技术的容器的流通和积累，研究了从广泛分布的社会和经济网络到相对有限的地方社区的转变。 指导这项研究的关键问题是：转移到地方为基础的社区预期的空间组织现有的区域网络？或者，现有的区域网络是否与地方社区的组织和结构相矛盾或被取代？虽然明确面向过去的社会，这项研究承担相关的社区今天受到大规模的进程，如全球化，新自由主义和全球气候变化，挑战地方自治和传统的持续性的理解。例如，从现代通信网络中产生的，Sassaman和Gilmore使用化学和矿物学来源技术来调查先前存在的互动网络的组织如何促进和限制持久的基于地方的社区的出现（也就是说，村庄）。 本文将对早白垩世（5150-4100 B. P.）和经典型（4100-3800 B. P.）在格鲁吉亚和南卡罗来纳州的萨凡纳河谷的Stallings时期的网站，以测试作为社区规模和组织变化的函数的陶器和粘土变化的替代假设。 从早期施塔林陶器的差异在空间上的分布来看，经典施塔林时代基于地点的社区可能是从现有的社会差异中产生的。 相反，由于早期Stallings陶器缺乏可检测的次区域差异，以地点为基础的社区成为新的社会安排。 除了帮助解决一个基本的人类学问题，这项研究将通过支持博士后研究职位创造一个教育和培训机会。这也将对美国东南部六个不同仓库的收藏品的研究价值产生直接的积极影响，也许可以加强公众和政府对考古收藏品长期管理的承诺。 此外，所收集的中子活化分析和岩相学数据将提供给其他研究人员，从而提高今后进行比较和综合研究的能力。

Researchers have long sought to understand how and why interaction among widely dispersed and mobile communities coalesced into larger and more complex and stationary sociopolitical entities. Previous scholarship on this topic has focused on the ecological and demographic factors that necessitated a more sedentary lifestyle. Population growth and the adoption of agriculture, in particular, have been frequently cited as key factors in this evolutionary process. Archaeology is now well positioned to achieve a more nuanced understanding of this critical transition by focusing on the actual movements and convergences of people and artifacts across ancient landscapes. In this project, Dr. Kenneth Sassaman and Dr. Zackary Gilmore, of the University of Florida, examine the shift from broadly distributed social and economic networks to relatively circumscribed place-based communities by tracing the circulation and accumulation of vessels representing North America's oldest pottery technology. Key questions guiding this research are: Was the shift to place-based communities anticipated by the spatial organization of existing regional networks? Or, alternatively, were existing regional networks contradicted or superseded by the organization and structure of place-based communities? Although geared explicitly toward past societies, this research bears relevance to the understanding of communities affected today by large-scale processes, such as globalization, neoliberalism, and global climate change, that challenge local autonomy and the persistence of tradition. Arising out of modern networks of communication, for instance, are virtual communities of practice that enable local access to knowledge hitherto restricted to those with the political and economic capacity to channel and control access to nonlocal information.Sassaman and Gilmore use chemical and mineralogical sourcing techniques to investigate how the organization of preexisting interaction networks enabled and constrained the emergence of durable place-based communities (i.e., villages). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) and petrography will be conducted on large samples of pottery sherds from Early (5150-4100 B.P.) and Classic (4100-3800 B.P.) Stallings period sites in the Savannah River valley of Georgia and South Carolina in order to test alternative hypotheses on pottery and clay variation as a function of changes in community scale and organization. To the extent that variations in Early Stallings pottery was differentially distributed in space, the place-based communities of Classic Stallings times likely emerged out of existing social distinctions. Conversely, inasmuch as Early Stallings pottery lacks detectable subregional variations, place-based communities emerged as novel social arrangements. In addition to helping to address a fundamental anthropological question, this research will create an educational and training opportunity by supporting a post-doctoral research position. It will also have an immediate positive impact on the research value of collections housed at six different repositories in the southeastern U.S., perhaps bolstering public and government commitment to the long-term curation of archaeological collections. In addition, the NAA and petrographic data collected will be made available to other researchers and thus enhance the capacity for comparative and synthetic research in the future.