Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Effect Of Violence On Domestic Social Organization

博士论文改进奖：暴力对国内社会组织的影响

• 批准号: 1640392
• 负责人: Richard Leventhal
• 金额: $ 2.28万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 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: 2016-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640392&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Effect

Even today, as one watches the ongoing destruction of historic cities and cultural heritage in conflict zones, there emerge pressing questions about how people persist through times of political upheaval, how political violence reshapes lives, and how the act of survival, in itself a material phenomenon, reshapes our understanding of violence. With these pressing concerns in mind, doctoral candidate, Ms. Tiffany Cain, and Dr. Richard Leventhal, both of the University of Pennsylvania, examine how political upheaval and war impact civilian spaces and everyday life in conflict zones. Archaeology, as a framework of analysis, emphasizes attention to the material culture of past societies distant and recent, and, lends itself particularly well to the study of the daily lives of people who often go unaccounted for in the documentary record. The researchers aim to provide a framework for recognizing and interpreting the material culture of political violence in spaces not typically associated with conflict - specifically, marginalized civilian settlements rather than battlefields and military forts. This research contributes to the broader anthropological understanding of the social and material processes of violent conflict by re-centering the experiences of ordinary people in its analysis. This dissertation project is situated within a community-based research initiative in Quintana Roo, Mexico that trains local participants in archaeological methods and research design as well as historic preservation planning and implementation. This program positions archaeology as a key component of a sustainable development plan for the community and actively contributes to the informal education of local Maya community members through close collaborative programming. This project's investigations are concerned primarily with archaeological remains generated by the Caste War of Yucatán, or Maya Social War (1847-1901). The Caste War was a fifty four-year episode of violent conflict between a broadly defined Maya working class and Spanish creole upper class. The insurrection left many abandoned towns, haciendas, and ranches in the once thriving frontier landscape of what is now central Quintana Roo, Mexico. Conflict archaeology, a growing thematic field within the discipline, has brought the material analysis of modern warfare to the forefront of today's research concerns. Still, ordinary towns, settlements, and civilian spaces have not often been the focus of archaeological investigations of violent conflict. This research takes a novel approach to investigating the material culture of war by evaluating (1) how violent conflict impacts civilian spaces and (2) what its material consequences are for daily life in conflict areas. The investigators assess these questions by exploring how two processes commonly associated with conflict - the construction of defensive structures and regional abandonment - materialize. By examining the remains of unique settlement fortification practices observed in the study area as well as the association between rapid abandonment and the high density of culturally-valued grinding stones (metates) left in deserted settlement areas, the researchers will demonstrate how these marginalized communities on the frontier of 19th century Yucatan mobilized local knowledge and common practice in an effort to collectively persist in the face of large-scale violent conflict.

即使在今天，当人们看到历史名城和文化遗产在冲突地区遭到持续破坏时，仍然出现了紧迫的问题：人们如何在政治动乱时期坚持下去，政治暴力如何重塑生活，生存行为本身是一种物质现象，如何重塑我们对暴力的理解。考虑到这些紧迫的问题，宾夕法尼亚大学的博士生蒂凡尼·凯恩女士和理查德·莱文塔尔博士研究了政治动荡和战争如何影响冲突地区的民用空间和日常生活。考古学作为一种分析框架，强调对远古和近代社会的物质文化的关注，特别适合研究经常在文献记录中下落不明的人的日常生活。研究人员的目标是提供一个框架，以识别和解释政治暴力的物质文化，这些空间通常与冲突无关--具体地说，是边缘化的平民住区，而不是战场和军事堡垒。这项研究通过在分析中重新考虑普通人的经历，有助于更广泛地从人类学角度理解暴力冲突的社会和物质过程。本论文项目位于墨西哥昆塔纳鲁奥的一个社区研究计划范围内，该计划对当地参与者进行考古方法和研究设计以及历史保护规划和实施方面的培训。该计划将考古定位为社区可持续发展计划的关键组成部分，并通过密切合作规划，积极为当地玛雅社区成员的非正式教育做出贡献。该项目的调查主要涉及尤卡坦种姓战争或玛雅社会战争(1847-1901)产生的考古遗迹。种姓战争是广义的玛雅工人阶级和西班牙克里奥尔上层阶级之间长达54年的暴力冲突。叛乱在曾经繁荣的边境地区留下了许多废弃的城镇、庄园和牧场，这里现在是墨西哥昆塔纳鲁奥的中心。冲突考古学是该学科中一个日益增长的主题领域，它将现代战争的材料分析带入了当今研究关注的前沿。尽管如此，普通的城镇、定居点和民用空间并不经常成为暴力冲突考古调查的重点。这项研究采用了一种新的方法来调查战争的物质文化，评估(1)暴力冲突如何影响民用空间，(2)其对冲突地区日常生活的物质后果是什么。调查人员通过探索通常与冲突有关的两个过程--建造防御结构和区域放弃--如何实现这些问题。通过研究在研究地区观察到的独特聚落防御工事的遗迹，以及快速废弃与废弃聚落地区高密度的具有文化价值的磨石(Metate)之间的联系，研究人员将展示这些位于19世纪尤卡坦边境的边缘化社区如何动员当地知识和共同做法，努力在大规模暴力冲突面前集体坚持下去。