Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: A Cross Cultural Comparison Of Risk And Adaptation Strategies

博士论文改进奖：风险与适应策略的跨文化比较

• 批准号: 1558235
• 负责人: Howard Foster
• 金额: $ 1.12万
• 依托单位: University of Tulsa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-15 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1558235&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Cross

With support from the National Science Foundation, Ms Alicia Odewale will conduct archaeological research to examine the natural and social challenges associated with New World slaves in multiple regions within the New World. In addition to archaeologically investigating the risks plaguing these communities, the researchers will also compare the strategies each enslaved community employed to mitigate both social and natural hazards in their environment. This comparative study uses a mixed methods approach, combining the use of slave narratives and primary accounts with archaeological evidence recovered from the former residential spaces of enslaved peoples living in environmentally distinct regions. This research goes beyond current African Diaspora scholarship to highlight the experiences of enslaved peoples serving the most elite factions of society, as well as uncovering those specific environmental challenges of primary concern to enslaved peoples living within urban insular and rural landlocked regions across the Diaspora, and compares the range of cultural adaptations different enslaved communities used to overcome the challenges they faced. The current project remains relevant for risk prone communities across the globe, as certain marginalized or indigenous cultures continue to be threatened by external forces beyond their control. Investigating the use of different strategies to diminish the effects of external forces in the past will present new directives in how to better protect marginalized peoples in the future. Alicia Odewale and her team will conduct new archaeological investigations around the Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse inside the Christiansted National Historic Site in St. Croix, and compare these newly recovered artifacts to the extensive material already being processed by the Archaeology Department at the Montpelier Plantation Estate in Virginia. The investigators will identify and rank the primary risks of most concern to the enslaved community in each region from first-hand accounts of enslaved peoples in the West Indies and Virginia. Four types of risk sensitive artifact classes including: faunal remains, metal wares, ceramics and trade goods found at each site will then be used to identify the possible cultural responses to those challenges that presented the greatest threats to the enslaved community in each region. The central question of this study asks which of these sites presents a riskier environment for enslaved peoples during the late plantation era. The investigators hypothesize that the social and natural hazards present in the urban Caribbean environment for the royal enslaved laborers in St. Croix will pose a greater threat to the enslaved community than the rural antebellum plantation environment belonging to the presidential enslaved laborers in Virginia. Combining the written words of enslaved peoples with archaeological evidence will create a more informed study of the diversity of experiences that existed across the African Diaspora and provide a more inclusive environment for archaeologists, students and descendant communities to work together.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Alicia Odewale女士将进行考古研究，以研究与新大陆多个地区的新大陆奴隶相关的自然和社会挑战。除了对困扰这些社区的风险进行考古调查外，研究人员还将比较每个被奴役社区为减轻其环境中的社会和自然危害而采取的策略。这项比较研究采用混合方法，将奴隶叙述和主要叙述与从生活在环境截然不同的地区的被奴役人民的以前居住空间中发现的考古证据结合起来。这项研究超越了目前的非洲散居者学术，突出了被奴役人民为社会最精英派别服务的经历，并揭示了生活在散居各地的城市岛屿和农村内陆地区的被奴役人民最关心的具体环境挑战，并比较了不同被奴役社区用来克服他们面临的挑战的文化适应的范围。目前的项目仍然与全球风险易发社区有关，因为某些边缘化或土著文化继续受到超出其控制范围的外部力量的威胁。调查过去使用不同战略减少外部力量的影响，将为今后如何更好地保护被边缘化的人民提出新的指示。Alicia Odewale和她的团队将在圣克罗伊基督教国家历史遗址内的丹麦西印度和几内亚公司仓库周围进行新的考古调查，并将这些新发现的文物与弗吉尼亚州蒙彼利埃种植园的考古部已经处理的大量材料进行比较。调查人员将从西印度群岛和弗吉尼亚州被奴役人民的第一手记录中确定每个地区被奴役社区最关心的主要风险，并对其进行排序。在每个地点发现的动物遗骸、金属器皿、陶瓷和贸易物品等四类对风险敏感的文物类别将被用来确定对每个地区被奴役社区构成最大威胁的挑战可能采取的文化应对措施。这项研究的中心问题是，在种植园时代后期，这些地点中的哪一个给被奴役的人民带来了更危险的环境。调查人员推测，加勒比海城市环境中存在的社会和自然危害对圣克罗伊的皇家奴役劳工来说，将比属于弗吉尼亚州总统奴役劳工的战前农村种植园环境对奴役社区构成更大的威胁。将被奴役民族的文字与考古证据结合起来，将对散居海外的非洲人的各种经历进行更有见地的研究，并为考古学家、学生和后代社区提供一个更具包容性的合作环境。