Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Regional Interaction as World-System Incorporation in Classic Period Mesoamerica

研究人员试图了解大国和小国之间的相互作用如何在地方和区域层面上影响小国的人口。随着全球相互联系的增加和世界范围经济系统的持续发展，这些系统对当地人口的影响，无论是积极的还是消极的，已经成为越来越重要的研究焦点。考古学特别适合研究过去的类似互动过程，因此可以为当前的经济和政治扩张过程提供信息。在古中美洲的古典时期（公元300-900年），特奥蒂瓦坎的大城市（位于今天的墨西哥城附近）与许多其他地区进行着各种形式的联系。互动的形式包括贸易、征服和文化传播。该项目将侧重于与特奥蒂瓦坎的一个互动地点，即墨西哥南韦拉克鲁斯州的塞拉洛斯图克斯特拉斯地区。它将讨论特奥蒂瓦坎对该区域当地人口的影响，并评估这种影响改变区域社会和经济制度的方式。在这样做的过程中，这个项目将有助于对经济扩张的一般研究，并执行一种从地方角度审查外国引起的区域经济变化的方法，这种方法可以广泛应用。这项研究将由亚利桑那州立大学的博士生Nathan D. Wilson在Michael E. Smith博士的指导下进行。这个项目的数据将作为威尔逊先生博士论文的基础。本研究解决了周边融入更大系统的问题，以及这一过程如何在区域内显现。它实现了一个世界体系框架，量化核心人口与协商外围人口之间的互动。为了评估这一点，它将研究墨西哥南部韦拉克鲁斯州西部图克斯特拉斯地区（WTR）进口商品的周边消费。通过多种证据，本研究将确定两个WTR政策的区域经济效应，这两个政策与一个侵入性中心（马塔卡潘）相连，显示出与墨西哥高地首都特奥蒂瓦坎的文化联系。先前对该地区的研究主要集中在与马塔卡潘相关的特定陶器类型的集约化生产和区域内分布。本项目将以先前的研究为基础：(1)更有效地量化两个相邻政策中这些产品的消费；(2)评估其他马塔卡帕生产商品的分配和消费。在此过程中，它将构建一个区域性的、历时性的观点，通过与马塔卡潘的互动，这两个土著政体（以及其中一个政体内的不同人口）被纳入特奥蒂瓦坎世界体系的不同方式。拟议的研究面向分析方法（例如，属性分析，仪器中子活化分析[INAA]和岩石学），以帮助区分早期和中期古典时期的背景，评估黑曜石视觉来源的准确性，并将当地实用陶瓷类型与进口版本区分开来。从先前挖掘的材料中选择样品将在墨西哥进行，而样品制备和化学和矿物学分析将由美国的实验室完成。

Researchers seek to understand how interaction between large states and small polities impacts populations of said small polities at the local and regional level. With increased global interconnectedness and the continued development of world-wide economic systems, the impacts of these systems on local populations, both positive and negative, have become an increasingly important focus of study. Archaeology is particularly well-suited to examine similar processes of interaction in the past and can therefore inform on these processes of economic and political expansion in the present. In the Classic Period (AD 300-900) of ancient Mesoamerica, the large city of Teotihuacan (located near present-day Mexico City), engaged in various forms of contact with many other regions. Forms of interaction included trade, conquest, and cultural dissemination. This project will focus on one location of interaction with Teotihuacan, the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Region of Southern Veracruz, Mexico. It will address the impacts of Teotihuacan influence on local populations in the region and assess the ways in which this influence altered regional social and economic systems. In doing so, this project will contribute to the general study of economic expansion and implements an approach to examine foreign-induced regional economic change from the local perspective, which can be applied broadly. This research will be conducted by Arizona State University doctoral student Nathan D. Wilson, under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith. Data from this project will serve as the basis for Mr. Wilson's doctoral dissertation.This research addresses the issue of peripheral incorporation into larger systems and how this process is manifest regionally. It implements a world-systems framework in quantifying interaction between core-affiliated populations and a negotiated periphery. To evaluate this, it will study peripheral consumption of imported goods in the Western Tuxtlas Region (WTR) of southern Veracruz, Mexico. Through multiple lines of evidence, this research will ascertain the regional economic effects for two WTR polities that were connected to an intrusive center (Matacapan) displaying cultural affiliation to the Mexican highland capital of Teotihuacan. Prior research in the region has focused on intensive production and regional, interpolity distribution of specific pottery types associated with Matacapan. This project will build upon this previous research by: (1) more effectively quantifying consumption of these products in two neighboring polities and (2) assessing distribution and consumption of other Matacapan-produced goods. In doing so, it will construct a regional, diachronic view of the different ways through which these two indigenous polities (and different populations within one of the polities) incorporated into a Teotihuacan world-system via interaction with Matacapan. The proposed research is geared toward analytical methods (e.g., attribute analysis, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis [INAA], and petrography) to help differentiate between Early and Middle Classic Period contexts, assess the accuracy of visual sourcing of obsidian, and separate local utilitarian pottery types from imported versions. Sample selection from previously excavated materials will be done in Mexico, while sample preparation and chemical and mineralogical analyses will be completed by laboratories in the United States.