Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Construction Of Identity And Foodways In A Borderland Zone

博士候选人惠特尼·古德温（Whitney Goodwin）将研究群体如何积极地协商他们的身份和隶属关系，以应对边境地区复杂的社会和政治格局。无论是过去还是现在，边境地区都是对共同身份基础上的传统进行频繁且经常有争议的重新定义的地方。边境地区身份的考古方法为理解这些变化的复杂原因和后果提供了必要的长期和多尺度视角。他们用了什么策略来抵制变革，这些策略是否成功？邻近群体的传统如何以及为什么有时会被借用或挪用？本研究关注的是通过检查多种材料，以及这些材料如何以加强或挑战并最终重新定义传统做法的方式组合在一起，来解决这些问题。了解对边界相互作用的反应变化及其长期影响具有重要意义，因为它们在今天比人类历史上任何时候都更广泛和频繁地发生。洪都拉斯东北部的前西班牙裔人口位于中美洲和中美洲下游的边界。从公元300年左右开始，东北地区在1200多年的时间里，尽管与北方和南方的群体关系不断变化，但仍然是一个有凝聚力的实体，社会不平等最小，内部共享风格和习俗。先前的研究表明，这种长期的稳定性可以归因于积极推广身份符号，有目的地将本地和异国风格混合在一起，以表达内部凝聚力和战略性的外部联系。然而，这一战略的实际执行情况仍未得到探讨。本研究不仅依赖于风格分析，还结合了对陶瓷风格的分析，关注陶瓷容器在实践中的使用地点和方式。在许多情况下，描绘表达身份的符号或设计的容器与食物和习俗结合在一起，这些食物和习俗在定义或质疑这些身份方面同样重要。通过观察食物方式——一个群体特有的资源和与食物相关的实践——与陶瓷风格相结合，认识到多重或相互冲突的身份的可能性。如果地方团体能够平衡地方传统与不断变化的从属关系，这是如何完成的？陶瓷风格和饮食方式是否表明了相同的外部联系，还是有多种或相互竞争的影响？对公共宴会事件的考古发掘，以及这些环境下陶瓷容器中烹饪残留物的特征和风格元素的特征，将为食物和风格的使用提供一个长期的视角。追踪这些重要的身份元素是如何随着时间的推移而结合在一起的，以及两者的影响来源，将为解开身份协商的过程提供信息，并突出群体在回应相互作用时接受、适应和抵制变化的各种方式。该项目包括与后代社区领导人和政府代表的重要合作，以增加地区博物馆中土著遗产的代表性，目的是鼓励游客参观当地社区。此外，洪都拉斯人类学本科学生参加实地考察和社区合作的努力，使他们能够满足完成学位的实习要求。

Whitney Goodwin, a PhD candidate, will investigate how groups actively negotiate their identities and affiliations to navigate the complex social and political landscapes of border areas. Border areas, both past and present, are locations of frequent and often contentious redefinitions of the traditions that underlie shared identities. Archaeological approaches to identity in border areas provide the long-term and multi-scalar perspective necessary for understanding the complex causes and consequences of these changes. What strategies were used to resist change and were they successful? How and why were traditions from neighboring groups sometimes borrowed or appropriated? This research is concerned with addressing these questions by examining multiple classes of materials and how these were combined in ways that reinforced or contested and eventually redefined traditional practices. Understanding variation in responses to border interactions and their long-term implications is significant given they occur more widely and frequently today than ever before in human history.Prehispanic populations of northeastern Honduras were positioned at the border of Mesoamerica and Lower Central America. Despite shifting affiliations with groups to the north and south, the northeastern region remained a cohesive entity with minimal social inequality and internally shared styles and practices for over 1,200 years, beginning around A.D. 300. Previous research suggests this long term stability can be attributed to the active promotion of symbols of identity that purposefully blended local and exotic styles to express both internal cohesion and strategic external affiliations. The actual implementation of this strategy, however, remains unexplored. Rather than rely on stylistic analyses alone, the present study combines analyses of ceramic style with a concern for where and how ceramic vessels were used in practice. In many cases, vessels that portray symbols or designs expressing identity were combined with foods and practices that were equally as important in defining or contesting those identities. By looking at foodways - the resources and food-related practices particular to a group - in conjunction with ceramic style, the possibility for multiple or conflicting identities is recognized. If local groups were able to balance local tradition with shifting affiliations, how was this accomplished? Were ceramic styles and foodways signaling the same external affiliations or were there multiple or competing influences represented? Archaeological excavations of communal feasting events and the characterization of cooking residues in and stylistic elements on ceramic vessels in these settings will provide a long-term perspective on how both foods and styles were employed. Tracing how these significant elements of identity were combined over time, and the source of influences for both, will provide information for disentangling the processes by which identity was negotiated and highlight the varied ways in which groups embrace, appropriate, and resist change in response to interaction. The project includes significant collaboration with descendent community leaders and government representatives to increase the representation of indigenous heritage in the regional museum, with the goal of encouraging tourists to visit local communities. Additionally, Honduran undergraduate anthropology students are partaking in fieldwork and community collaboration efforts, allowing them to fulfill their internship requirement for degree completion.