Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Effect of War On The Transformation of Social Hierarchies

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How do stable political, economic and social patterns (social order) form? Mr. Christopher Hernandez (Northwestern University), under the guidance of Dr. Cynthia Robin (Northwestern University), will direct an investigation into this central question in the social sciences by analyzing the material remains of the ancient Maya site of Tzunun, Chiapas, Mexico. He will test if warfare or at least the threat of war influences the development and transformation of social orders, particularly with respect to the growth of socioeconomic inequality and hierarchy. Archaeologists are particularly suited for the study of social order because the archaeological record is primarily composed of trends in human activity that span decades, centuries and even millennia. Bringing this long-term archaeological perspective, Hernandez and an international group of colleagues will investigate if and how warfare plays a role in the development and transformation of social orders with clear socioeconomic inequality and ample hierarchy. This project also provides economic support and training in the sciences for the local Maya community that is attempting to develop a sustainable tourist economy built around the preservation of the jungle ecosystem and Maya ancestral remains of the Selva Lacandona UNESCO biosphere.Archaeologists and other social scientists have long debated the relationship between warfare and socioeconomic order. Some argue that material gain is the primary cause of war. Others argue war is a destructive act that is detrimental to trade and other forms of economic activity. To establish if warfare promotes the development and institution of socioeconomic inequalities, Mr. Hernandez and colleagues will examine fortifications and refuse from residential mounds at Tzunun. Tzunun is a fortified site built on a peninsula with rugged terrain that contains 65 residential mounds. Initial investigations revealed evidence for two separate periods of occupation, the Preclassic (2000 BC-AD 200) and Postclassic/Colonial periods (AD 900/1000-1821). This chronology is important because during the Preclassic the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples developed complex societies with ample socioeconomic inequality. Hernandez?s survey of Tzunun suggests the site's high-status inhabitants lived in higher, more defensible locations because residential mound size increases as one ascends the site. Because Tzunun was inhabited both when complex societies with institutions of socioeconomic inequality first developed in the Americas (Preclassic period), and in the bellicose Postclassic and Colonial periods, this research can examine the extent to which warfare initially affected the development of social order or grew in importance later in time. The excavation of refuse pits from residences of varying sizes will be used to establish the material wealth of Tzunun?s residents. Analyzing the distribution of material wealth according to residence size will establish if topographic elevation was an important factor in the design of Tzunun and its inhabitant?s social order. If a hierarchy of residential location was coeval with the construction of the site's fortifications, it would mean status differentiation among the Maya was strongly tied to warfare, with war likely being a catalyst for the growth of socioeconomic inequality and hierarchy.