Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Long-Distance Exchange in the Emergence of Social Complexity

耶鲁大学博士生米歇尔·杨将研究离散社会之间的区域间互动如何影响社会政治发展。然而，这项研究的主要重点是通过远程交流网络进行的互动；调查还将考虑宗教习俗的传播以及在社会和文化变化过程中新的泛区域社会认同的形成。考古研究通过揭示这些因素在古代社会中是如何发挥作用的，来研究在导致社会复杂性的过程中交换和其他形式的相互作用之间的关系。社会之间相互“借鉴”什么以及如何“借鉴”，外部影响对地方决策和发展有什么影响？尽管这项研究考察了史前的一个特定案例研究，但它使用了全球化等模型来联系其发现，这些模型与人们理解当前日益相互关联的世界的方式有关。该项目已经通过为农村妇女和学生提供就业和教育机会，对实地的当地社区产生了重大影响。通过这次调查，还将使多名国际学生的专业培训和发展以及为感兴趣的学生和调查人员提供研究机会成为可能。这个项目的结果将成为两篇博士论文和几篇会议论文和出版物的基础。杨将比较位于秘鲁高地边缘地区的阿塔拉古镇随着时间的推移社会政治组织和远程互动的变化。这项研究将通过黑铁矿的化学和地质来源、陶瓷的岩相学和风格分析以及当地可获得的矿物颜料朱砂的化学鉴定来检验进出口商品的相互作用。这项研究还将通过对建筑以及家庭和仪式实践的跨文化比较来考察阿塔拉的非商业影响。这些相互作用的不同证据将与复杂的聚落、纪念性建筑的建立和社会分化的出现的证据汇合在一起，使调查人员能够发现因果关系是否存在以及存在于何处。这项调查将阐明区域间互动在发展当地复杂的社会安排方面的作用。

Michelle Young, a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, will investigate how interregional interaction between discrete societies affects sociopolitical development. The primary focus of this research is interaction through long-distance exchange networks, however; the investigation will also consider the spread of religious practices and the formation of new pan-regional social identities in processes of social and cultural change. Archaeological research is uniquely poised to examine the relationship between exchange and other forms of interaction in the processes which led to social complexity by revealing how these factors played out in ancient societies. What and how do societies "borrow" from one another, and what impact does outside influence have on local decision-making and development? Although this study examines one particular case study in prehistory, it contextualizes its findings using models such as globalization which are relevant to the way one understands the current, increasingly more interconnected world. The project has already had significant impacts on the local community at the field site by providing employment and education opportunities for rural women and students. The professional training and development of multiple international students and research opportunities for interested students and investigators will also be made possible through this investigation. Results from this project will form the basis of two Ph.D. dissertations and several conference papers and publicationsYoung will compare changes in sociopolitical organization and long-distance interaction through time at the ancient town of Atalla, located in a peripheral region of Peruvian highlands. This research will examine interaction by identifying imported and exported goods through chemical and geological sourcing of obsidian, petrographic and stylistic analyses of ceramics and chemical identification of cinnabar, a locally available mineral pigment. The study will also examine non-commercial influence at Atalla through cross-cultural comparisons of architecture and domestic and ceremonial practices. These diverse lines of evidence of interaction will converge with evidence of a complex settlement, the establishment of monumental architecture, and emergence of social differentiation, allowing investigators to detect causal relationships if and where they exist. The investigation will clarify the role of interregional interaction in the development of local complex social arrangements.