Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role Of Ritual In Household And Societal Solidarity

亚利桑那大学（University of Arizona）的博士候选人杰西卡·麦克莱伦（Jessica MacLellan）将研究家庭仪式在古玛雅文明发展中的作用。该项目将提供经验证据，以解决有关家庭和仪式在世界各地，特别是非西方社会的社会和政治变革中的作用的广泛问题。许多学者已经表明，公共仪式是社区整合和早期国家王权出现的关键。一些人认为，这些仪式是基于先前存在的家庭习俗，但就最早的玛雅社区而言，家庭和公共关系的本质仍不清楚。麦克莱伦的研究将阐明人类向定居、以农业为基础的生活方式过渡的社会过程，以及随后复杂文明的出现。玛雅地区的相关研究集中在较小的遗址、较晚的时期和其他地区，因此研究的是不同的社会过程。麦克莱伦的工作将为家庭活动在社会政治等级发展中的作用提供一个新的、互补的视角。麦克莱伦的研究是Ceibal-Petexbatún考古项目的一部分，该项目是由稻俣武博士和同样来自亚利桑那大学的达妮埃拉·特里亚丹博士领导的一个国际合作项目。危地马拉的塞巴尔遗址是一个令人惊讶的公共仪式中心，大约在玛雅低地开始出现定居村庄和陶瓷的时候（公元前1000年左右）。因此，塞巴尔提供了一个难得的机会来调查仪式实践的变化与重要的社会政治变革之间的关系，从向农业过渡开始。麦克莱伦在Karinel Group进行了初步调查，这是一个早期的住宅区。通过对Karinel群的进一步精心定位的挖掘和随后的实验室分析，MacLellan将评估三个具体问题，以确定家庭仪式的变化如何影响Ceibal更广泛的社会：1)Ceibal的人们什么时候开始生活在永久的、正式的群体结构中？在该遗址的公共广场建成后，一种更加流动的生活方式是否还在继续？2)在哪个时期，家庭仪式与在中央广场举行的公共仪式相似？3)涉及祖先骨骼的家庭仪式是否早于并促进了社会政治等级制度的发展？为了回答这些问题，麦克莱伦将通过陶瓷分析和放射性碳定年来建立一个清晰、精确的卡莱尔群年表。这个年表将为其他中美洲考古学家提供重要的比较资料。塞巴尔项目将雇用许多当地的玛雅人和西班牙人劳工。通过与附近社区的互动，研究人员将阻止该地区考古遗址的抢劫、森林砍伐和其他破坏性活动。该项目还将在实地和实验室方法方面培训几名危地马拉学生，从而塑造和支持下一代危地马拉考古学家。

Jessica MacLellan, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona, will investigate the role of household rituals in the development of ancient Maya civilization. This project will provide empirical evidence to address broad questions about the roles of households and ritual in social and political change around the world, particularly in non-Western societies. Many scholars have shown that public rituals are key to the integration of communities and the emergence of kingship in early states. Some argue that such rituals are based on pre-existing domestic practices, but in the case of the earliest Maya communities, the nature of the relationship between domestic and public remains unclear. MacLellan's research will illuminate the social processes involved in the transition to a sedentary, agriculture-based lifestyle and in the subsequent emergence of a complex civilization. Related studies in the Maya area have focused on smaller sites, later time periods, and other regions, and therefore on different social processes. MacLellan's work will provide a new, complementary perspective on the role of household activities in the development of socio-political hierarchies. MacLellan's research is part of the Ceibal-Petexbatún Archaeological Project, an international collaboration directed by Dr. Takeshi Inomata and Dr. Daniela Triadan, also of the University of Arizona. The site of Ceibal, in Guatemala, was founded as a public ceremonial center surprisingly early - around the time sedentary villages and ceramics began to appear in the Maya lowlands (about 1000 BC). Ceibal therefore presents a rare opportunity to investigate how changes in ritual practices relate to important socio-political transformations, beginning around the transition to agriculture. MacLellan has conducted preliminary investigations at the Karinel Group, an early residential area. Through further, carefully targeted excavations at the Karinel Group and subsequent laboratory analyses, MacLellan will evaluate three specific questions in order to determine how shifts in household ritual affected the broader society at Ceibal: 1) When did people at Ceibal began living in permanent, formal groups of structures, and did a more mobile lifestyle continue after the site's public plaza was constructed?; 2) During which time periods did domestic rituals resemble public rituals conducted in the Central Plaza?; and 3) Did domestic rituals involving the bones of ancestors predate and facilitate the development of socio-political hierarchies? MacLellan will establish a clear, refined chronology of the Karinel Group through ceramic analysis and radiocarbon dating in order to answer these questions. This chronology will serve as important comparative data for other Mesoamerican archaeologists. The Ceibal project will employ many local Maya and Hispanic laborers. Through interactions with nearby communities, the researchers will discourage looting, deforestation, and other destructive activities at archaeological sites in the region. The project will also train several Guatemalan students in field and laboratory methods, thereby shaping and supporting the next generation of Guatemalan archaeologists.