Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: An Investigation of Long Term Culture Contact and Accommodation

本研究的目的是了解社区如何适应暴露于一个新的宗教影响，这是如何纳入一个传统的现存的世界观和这一过程的物质表现。这一问题在当今世界至关重要，因为缺乏成功的融合是世界许多地区冲突的核心。通过考察西班牙殖民时期，新世界的前西班牙文化接触到基督教的殖民过程，可以考察长期以来的多宗教互动。维克托·卡斯蒂略先生将在猪又武博士的指导下，对世纪期间过渡到西班牙殖民统治的玛雅高地小定居点奇安特拉·别霍进行考古调查。为了解决殖民地环境中社区生存的机制，卡斯蒂略的研究将研究当地社区如何继续使用广场进行公共集中和大规模仪式，为外部创新和传统仪式做法之间的谈判留下空间。 结合对遗址布局的分析，有针对性的挖掘和实验室分析，该项目将提供一个实质性的数据集，以评估在当地小社区的关键过渡时期，文化变化作为一种政治结果的层面。卡斯蒂略的工作将通过研究殖民主义框架内更复杂和本地化的文化互动场景，为解决超越传统文化适应和融合模式的宗教变革提供新的基础。在Chiantla Viejo的调查还与该遗址周围的现代社区进行了建设性的对话，因为这个地方被视为Chiantla现代城镇的祖先所在地，从而提高了对保护和保存当地考古遗产的认识。 最终，这项工作将提出一个更接近和本地的方式，土著玛雅群体应对殖民影响，以及前西班牙裔社区如何成功地过渡到殖民生活，甚至超过了西班牙统治到现代。

The goal of this research is to understand how communities adapt to exposure to a new religious influence, how this is incorporated into a traditional extant world view and the material manifestations of this process. This issue is of central importance in the world today as lack of successful integration lies at the heart of conflicts in many regions of the world. Through the examination of the colonial process in which pre-hispanic New World cultures were exposed to Christianity through Spanish colonization it is possible to examine multi-religion interaction over extended periods of time.Under the direction of Dr. Takeshi Inomata, Mr. Victor Castillo will conduct archaeological investigations at Chiantla Viejo, a small highland Maya settlement that transitioned to Spanish colonial rule during the 16th century. In order to address the mechanism of community survival in colonial settings, Castillo's research will study how the continued use of the plaza by the local community for public concentrations and massive rituals left room for negotiation between external innovations and traditional ritual practices. Combining the analysis of site layout, targeted excavations, and laboratory analyses, this project will provide a substantive dataset to evaluate the dimension of culture change as a political outcome during a critical transitional period for small local communities. Castillo´s work will provide new grounds for addressing religious change beyond traditional models of acculturation and syncretism by studying a more complex and localized scenario of cultural interactions within the framework of colonialism. The investigations at Chiantla Viejo also integrates a constructive dialogue with the modern community surrounding the site since the place is treasured as the ancestral location of the modern town of Chiantla, thus raising awareness about the protection and preservation of the local archaeological patrimony. Ultimately, this work will present a more proximate and locally situated account of the ways in which native Maya groups responded to the colonial impact and how pre-Hispanic communities managed to transition successfully to colonial life and even outlasted the Spanish domination up to modern times.