Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Long Term Relationship Between Political Authority And Economic Organization

社会科学研究的一个主要问题是确定社会复杂社会发展的潜在机制，以及较大的城镇和城市发挥向心力的方式，这些向心力将这些社会的人口聚集在一起并整合在一起。只有考古学可以追溯这种发展的最早部分，在此期间，后来建立的模式被建立起来。对早期复杂社会的系统研究表明，促进其发展的社会、环境和经济条件具有相当大的可变性，对考古案例的比较揭示了这种可变性的模式，从而深入了解不同的发展力量是如何相互结合和互补的。这个项目将特别侧重于政治权威与为人民提供日常生活的实用物品的系统组织之间的关系。早期统治者与这些基本经济制度之间的联系鲜为人知。研究人员提出这样的问题：控制、管理或从基本商品的生产和分配中获利，是否、如何以及在多大程度上有助于早期统治者展现其政治权威的能力。这种关系可能采取的不同形式可能为建立在不同核心原则基础上的政治实体奠定基础，并导致或多或少的长期政治稳定。对鼓励大型社会的经济发展和政治稳定的基本因素有更深入的了解，在一个由这些社会组成的世界中，有不同的组织模式和历史，在实现政治稳定和满足其人口的经济需要方面取得不同程度的成功，这显然是有贡献的。这个项目将评估基本物品分配网络的变化在多大程度上符合政治单位的集中和分散。在罗伯特·d·德伦南（Robert D. drenan）博士的指导下，博士生卡米拉·凯尔索（Camilla Kelsoe）将对先前研究发现的实用陶器碎片样本进行地球化学分析，这些碎片来自中国中南部江汉平原的两个新石器时代的城墙城镇。这些陶器碎片的成分变化模式将被研究，以描绘新石器时代晚期（公元前3300-2000年）的陶器分布网络。这两个城镇之一的小城在这一时期得到了发展，并变得越来越集中，而另一个城镇陶家湖的人口则变得不那么集中。这些可供选择的发展轨迹为系统地评估中央集权政治权威与经济发展之间的关系提供了一个理想的案例。除了取得实质性成果外，该项目还将为博士候选人提供必要的研究培训，并促进匹兹堡大学与中国几家机构（武汉大学、湖北省考古研究所、中国科学院和中南大学）之间更密切的学术合作。

A major concern of social science research has been to identify the mechanisms underlying the development of socially complex societies and the ways in which larger towns and cities exert centripetal forces that draw together and integrate the populations of these societies. Only archaeology can trace the earliest parts of this development, during which the patterns built on later were established. Systematic study of early complex societies has shown considerable variability in the social, environmental, and economic conditions that foster their development, and comparisons of archaeological cases reveal patterns in this variability that provide insight into how different developmental forces can combine and complement each other. This project will focus especially on the relationship between political authority and the organization of systems for providing a population with the utilitarian goods of daily life. The connections between early rulers and these basic economic systems are poorly known. Researchers ask whether, how, and to what extent controlling, managing, or profiting from the production and distribution of basic goods contributed to the ability of early rulers to project their political authority. The different forms that this relationship could take might set the stage for political entities founded on different core principles and lead to greater or lesser long-term political stability. Greater understanding of the basic factors that encourage economic development and political stability in large-scale societies makes a clear contribution in a world composed of such societies, with varied organizational patterns and histories and and with different degrees of success in achieving political stability and in providing for the economic needs of their populations.This project will assess the degree to which changes in distribution networks of basic goods correspond with the centralization and decentralization of political units. Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, the doctoral candidate, Camilla Kelsoe, will carry out a geochemical analysis of a sample of utilitarian pottery sherds recovered by previous research from two Neolithic walled towns in the Jianghan Plain of south-central China. Patterns in the compositional variability of these pottery sherds will be examined to delineate pottery distribution networks through the late Neolithic period (3300-2000 BCE). One of these two towns, Xiaocheng, developed and became increasingly centralized through this period, while the population of the other, Taojiahu, became less centralized. These alternative trajectories present an ideal case in which to systematically assess the relationship between centralized political authority and economic development. In addition to its substantive results, the project will provide essential research training for the doctoral candidate and foster closer academic collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and several institutions in China: Wuhan University, the Hubei Province Institute of Archaeology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Central South University.