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

这项研究项目考察了沿海采集者如何在不断变化的区域政治格局中组织他们的家庭实践、食物收集战略和手工产品的生产。考古学研究为人类社会的组织变化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-采集者自古以来一直保持着极其多样的政治、经济和社会组织形式，但他们获得和管理盈余和社会权威的手段可能不同于农业社会。一些非农业团体在财富、地位和权威方面保持着制度差异；另一些团体则利用合作努力、临时领导或仪式实践来进行壮举，如建造令人印象深刻的纪念碑作品或建立专业手工艺产品的贸易网络。该项目侧重于复杂的沿海狩猎-采集发展的一个具体案例，以促进关于采猎者之间组织差异的更广泛的专题。除了广泛和持续的教育和公共宣传外，这个项目还将有助于详细的、有背景的植物和动物遗骸的记录，这可能为未来对海岸和河口环境的研究提供有价值的数据。密歇根大学的博士生克里斯蒂娜·桑普森在罗宾·贝克博士的指导下，将调查史前晚期生活在佛罗里达州墨西哥湾沿岸维登岛的渔民狩猎采集者的社区组织。该项目将从国内存款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州农业群体和南部复杂的狩猎-采集加卢萨政体之间。这一职位将为贸易、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)国内习俗的社会规模，(2)占领的节奏，(3)地方当局在维持生计方面的权力范围，以及(4)区域间互动的程度。该项目将使用调查人员最近在Weeden Island遗址挖掘的材料来生成数据，包括AMS放射性碳测年、现场消费的动植物食物的类型和分布，以及与贸易和手工艺生产相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.