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

米歇尔·杨博士耶鲁大学的候选人，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。这项研究的主要重点是通过远程交流网络的互动，然而，调查也将考虑宗教习俗的传播和新的泛区域社会身份的形成，在社会和文化变革的过程中。考古学研究是独一无二的，通过揭示这些因素在古代社会中的作用，来研究交换和其他形式的互动之间的关系，从而导致社会复杂性。社会之间相互“借用”什么和如何借用，外部影响对地方决策和发展有什么影响？虽然本研究考察了史前史中的一个特定案例研究，但它使用与人们理解当前日益相互关联的世界的方式相关的全球化等模型将其研究结果置于背景中。该项目通过为农村妇女和学生提供就业和教育机会，已经对实地的当地社区产生了重大影响。通过这次调查，还将为多名国际学生提供专业培训和发展，并为感兴趣的学生和调查人员提供研究机会。该项目的成果将成为两个博士学位的基础。论文和几个会议论文和publicationsYoung将比较在社会政治组织的变化和通过时间在阿塔拉古城，位于秘鲁高地的周边地区的远距离互动。这项研究将通过黑曜石的化学和地质来源、陶瓷的岩相学和风格分析以及朱砂（一种当地可用的矿物颜料）的化学鉴定来确定进出口货物，从而研究相互作用。该研究还将通过对建筑和家庭及仪式实践的跨文化比较，研究阿塔拉的非商业影响。这些相互作用的证据将与复杂的定居点，纪念性建筑的建立和社会分化的出现的证据相结合，使调查人员能够检测因果关系是否存在以及在何处存在。调查将澄清区域间的互动在当地复杂的社会安排的发展中的作用。

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.