Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Comparative Examination of the Process of Urban Development

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This doctoral dissertation research project examines how settlement location choices among residents of low-density urban communities are influenced by both social and environmental variables, and how these change over time. It evaluates the gradual growth and expansion of an ancient city to determine how social status and access to resources influenced location and directly tests broader, anthropological questions regarding human behaviors, power dynamics, family and kin relationships, and communities. The relationship between resources and human decision-making has implications for modern communities facing resource and population pressures. The success of global political systems and their supporting settlement and impact on the world around them are issues of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, ecologists, geographers, and urban studies. This research will result in the completion of a doctoral dissertation and will be disseminated through several peer-reviewed journal publications, presentations to both the public and academics, and social media outlets. In most societies with relatively high populations non-elites are unable to freely select settlement locations without the being impeded by social or economic brokers often controlled by political elites. However, in communities with lower density populations and less political control from elites, commoners are often able to (more) freely select locations to live; their settlement decisions are often based on personal preference and access to resources. Changes in political leadership in conjunction with increased population density can directly impact the settlement distributions across a community. The dissertation student, Amy Thompson will explore these possible shifts in settlement selection at a Classic period (AD 250-800) Maya center Ix Kuku'il, located in the southern foothills of the Maya Mountains in Toledo District, Belize and compare her findings to a nearby, yet well-studied ancient Maya center, Uxbenká as both sites are situated in a similar geographic setting yet appear to have differing occupational histories. Fieldwork will be collaborative with residents of a modern Mopan Maya community who will assist in documenting the location of ancient households and excavate settlements of varying social status.