Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Development Of Social Complexity In A Foraging Society

该研究项目探讨了沿海觅食者如何在不断变化的区域政治格局的背景下组织他们的国内实践，食物收集策略以及手工艺品的生产。考古学研究提供了一个独特的和有价值的视角在人类社会的组织变化，因为它的时间深度和能力，以访问过去的社会和生态条件。长期以来，狩猎采集者一直保持着极其多变的政治、经济和社会组织形式，但他们获取和管理剩余财富和社会权威的方式可能与农业社会不同。一些非农业群体在财富、等级和权威方面保持着制度上的差异;另一些群体则利用合作努力、临时领导或仪式实践来完成壮举，比如建造令人印象深刻的不朽作品或建立专门工匠产品的贸易网络。这个项目的重点是一个特殊的情况下，复杂的沿海狩猎采集的发展，以促进更广泛的主题之间的组织变化觅食。除了广泛和持续的教育和公众宣传外，该项目还将贡献一份详细的，有背景的植物和动物遗骸记录，可能为未来的沿海和河口环境研究提供有价值的数据。密歇根大学博士生克里斯蒂娜桑普森，由罗宾贝克博士监督，将调查史前晚期生活在佛罗里达墨西哥湾沿岸韦登岛的狩猎采集者的社区组织。该项目将提供前所未有的广泛和系统收集的国内矿床数据。文化区位于北部复杂的密西西比农业群体和南部复杂的狩猎采集者Calusa政治之间。这一地位将为贸易、竞争以及新思想的交流和发展提供机会。该项目的研究问题集中在四个主题：（1）家庭习俗的社会规模，（2）占领的克里思，（3）地方当局对生计习俗的程度，以及（4）区域间互动的程度。该项目将使用调查人员最近在韦登岛遗址发掘的材料来生成数据，包括AMS放射性碳日期，现场消费的动植物食品的类型和分布，以及与贸易和手工艺生产有关的文物的属性和位置。

This research project examines how coastal foragers organized their domestic practices, strategies for food collection, and the production of crafted goods in the context of a changing regional political landscape. Archaeological research provides a unique and valuable perspective on organizational variation in human societies because of its time depth and ability to access past social and ecological conditions. Hunter-gatherers throughout time have maintained extremely variable forms of political, economic, and social organization, but their means of acquiring and managing surplus and social authority may differ from agricultural societies. Some non-agricultural groups maintained institutional differences in wealth, rank, and authority; others utilized cooperative efforts, temporary leadership, or ritual practice to undertake feats like constructing impressive monumental works or establishing trade networks for specialized artisan products. This project focuses on a particular case of complex coastal hunter-gatherer development in order to contribute to the broader topic of organizational variation among foragers. In addition to extensive and ongoing educational and public outreach, this project will also contribute a detailed, contextualized record of plant and animal remains that may provide valuable data for future studies of coastal and estuary environments.University of Michigan doctoral student Christina Sampson, supervised by Dr. Robin Beck, will investigate the community organization of fisher-hunter-gatherers living on Weeden Island on Florida's Gulf Coast in late prehistory. This project will provide unprecedented extensive and systematically-collected data from domestic deposits. The culture area was located between complex agricultural Mississippian groups to the north and complex hunter-gatherer Calusa polities to the south. This position would have afforded opportunities for trade, competition, and the exchange and development of new ideas. The project's research questions are focused on four topics: (1) the social scale of domestic practices, (2) the tempo of occupation, (3) the extent of local authority over subsistence practices, and (4) the extent of inter-regional interaction. This project will use materials from the investigator's recent excavations at the Weeden Island site to generate data including AMS radiocarbon dates, the types and distributions of animal and plant foods consumed on site, and the attributes and locations of artifacts related to trade and craft production.