Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Resilience Theory as a Context For Understanding Long Term Social Change

博士论文改进奖：韧性理论作为理解长期社会变革的背景

• 批准号: 1743532
• 负责人: David Meltzer
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-15 至 2019-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1743532&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Resilience

Dawn Crawford, a PhD Candidate at Southern Methodist University, along with the Holtun Archaeological Project (HAP) team working within the ancient Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala will reconstruct the daily lives of its inhabitants during a period of extreme political and economic stress, often referred to as the Maya collapse during the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-900). Previous research on the Maya collapse has focused on the causes of the abandonment of major cities and centers. Crawford and HAP will examine the inherent resilience of humanity by trying to understand how people actively changed their economic strategies in order to mitigate the impact of political failure. Additionally, this research will investigate the variable responses of different social classes to political collapse, as certain social groups may be more resilient in the face of social change. Archaeology is well suited to examine both large and small-scale changes across a society through deep time and can provide new perspectives on the ability of humans (ancient and modern) to respond to political and economic crises and survive them. The HAP team also works with local communities on the preservation of cultural heritage and provides education and training in archaeology and STEM applications for both US and Guatemalan students. Through applying resilience theory to economic patterns, a focus particularly suited to archaeological research and material culture studies, this study opens up new applications and opportunities to understand how humans of varying backgrounds and socio-economic rankings adjust to drastic political and economic change, relevant today, as in the past.Crawford utilizes resilience theory, a theoretical perspective initially developed within ecological research to look at how environments bounce back from disruptions. Through applying this idea of resilience to humans rather than just environments it is possible look at larger patterns of human behavior in ancient societies. Crawford specifically investigates economic activities and decision making (as opposed to only ecological changes) to examine human resilience. Economic resilience is especially visible archaeologically through what people made, what they imported, and how they used these goods. Specifically, residents at the Maya site of Holtun may have changed where they got their clay to make ceramics, how many of their pots were imported vs. locally made, and what types of pots they made in response to the breakdown of interregional trade and dwindling markets. They may have also responded to shortages of imported obsidian volcanic glass (used for everyday cutting and ritual activities) by reusing and re-sharpening existing blades and/or focusing on locally available material like chert (flint). Excavations of houses of various societal ranks within Holtun combined with Neutron Activation Analysis and Ceramic Petrography laboratory analyses for pottery and portable X-Ray Fluorescence for obsidian will provide clues to changing trade routes and resources utilized by different social groups during the period of collapse.

道恩克劳福德，南卫理公会大学博士候选人，沿着与霍尔通考古项目（HAP）团队在危地马拉霍尔通古玛雅遗址工作，将重建其居民在极端政治和经济压力时期的日常生活，通常被称为玛雅崩溃在终端经典时期（公元800-900）。以前关于玛雅崩溃的研究集中在主要城市和中心被遗弃的原因上。克劳福德和HAP将通过试图了解人们如何积极改变他们的经济战略，以减轻政治失败的影响，来研究人类固有的弹性。 此外，这项研究将调查不同社会阶层对政治崩溃的不同反应，因为某些社会群体在面对社会变革时可能更具弹性。考古学非常适合研究一个社会在很长一段时间内的大规模和小规模变化，并可以为人类（古代和现代）应对政治和经济危机并在危机中生存的能力提供新的视角。HAP团队还与当地社区合作保护文化遗产，并为美国和危地马拉学生提供考古学和STEM应用方面的教育和培训。通过将弹性理论应用于经济模式，一个特别适合于考古研究和物质文化研究的焦点，这项研究开辟了新的应用和机会，以了解不同背景和社会经济排名的人类如何适应激烈的政治和经济变化，今天相关，就像过去一样。克劳福德利用弹性理论，一种理论观点，最初是在生态学研究中发展起来的，旨在研究环境如何从破坏中恢复过来。通过将这种复原力的概念应用于人类而不仅仅是环境，我们有可能看到古代社会人类行为的更大模式。 克劳福德专门研究经济活动和决策（而不仅仅是生态变化），以研究人类的适应能力。 从考古学的角度来看，经济弹性尤其明显，表现在人们制造了什么，进口了什么，以及如何使用这些商品。具体来说，霍尔通玛雅遗址的居民可能已经改变了他们获得粘土制作陶瓷的地方，他们的陶器有多少是进口的，有多少是当地制造的，以及他们为了应对区域间贸易的崩溃和市场的萎缩而制造的陶器类型。 他们也可能是为了应对进口黑曜石火山玻璃（用于日常切割和仪式活动）的短缺，通过重复使用和重新锐化现有的刀片和/或专注于当地可用的材料，如燧石（燧石）。 霍尔通内不同社会阶层的房屋的重建，结合中子活化分析和陶瓷岩相学实验室对陶器和黑曜石的便携式X射线荧光分析，将为不同社会群体在崩溃期间利用的贸易路线和资源的变化提供线索。