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

本研究项目考察了沿海采集者如何在不断变化的地区政治格局背景下组织他们的家庭实践、食物收集策略和工艺品生产。考古研究为研究人类社会的组织变异提供了独特而有价值的视角，因为它具有时间深度和获取过去社会和生态条件的能力。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，但他们获取和管理盈余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、等级和权力方面保持着制度差异；其他人则利用合作努力、临时领导或仪式实践来完成壮举，如建造令人印象深刻的纪念性作品或为专门的工匠产品建立贸易网络。本项目关注复杂的沿海狩猎采集者发展的一个特殊案例，以促进觅食者组织变化这一更广泛的主题。除了广泛和持续的教育和公众宣传外，该项目还将提供详细的、背景化的动植物遗骸记录，这可能为未来的沿海和河口环境研究提供有价值的数据。在罗宾·贝克博士的指导下，密歇根大学的博士生克里斯蒂娜·桑普森将调查史前晚期居住在佛罗里达州墨西哥湾沿岸威登岛上的渔猎采集者的社区组织。该项目将从国内矿床中提供前所未有的广泛和系统收集的数据。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卡卢萨政治之间。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上：(1)国内实践的社会规模，(2)职业的节奏，(3)地方当局对生存实践的程度，以及(4)区域间互动的程度。该项目将使用调查人员最近在威登岛遗址挖掘的材料来生成数据，包括AMS放射性碳测年，现场消耗的动植物食物的类型和分布，以及与贸易和工艺生产相关的人工制品的属性和位置。

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.