Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Visible Markers of Group Affiliation and Social Position

在这篇博士论文中，Benjamin Bellorado是亚利桑那大学的一名研究生，在Ronald Towner博士的指导下工作，将为他的博士论文收集数据。因此，除了由此产生的知识外，这笔资助还将有助于促进有前途的年轻科学家的智力发展和职业发展。利用长期的考古数据，该项目调查了个人通过可见符号表达群体隶属关系以及群体内部地位的微妙方式。该研究采用了一个来自史前美国西南部的考古例子来研究符号使用随时间的变化，并将其与社会组织中发生的巨大变化联系起来。虽然在今天的背景下，首饰或头巾等符号可能反映了群体关系，但这项考古分析提供了一个机会，可以检查几个世纪以来的时间跨度的变化。这项研究将对西南印第安人特别感兴趣，因为它提供了对部落历史的深入了解。本研究以10世纪至13世纪的普韦布洛祖传地区为例，探讨了不同群体如何通过改变物质世界不同方面的可见性来传达有关边界、群体包容性和社会身份的重要信息。它还涉及更广泛的问题，即在宗教和政治层面在多个尺度上发生巨大文化变化时的适应和认同问题，提供了与查科系统及其重组有关的社会破坏和改革的新信息。博物馆的藏品将用于测量和拍摄凉鞋，为AMS（加速器质谱）测年获取样本，并从先前描述凉鞋的建筑壁画和岩石艺术的描述和时间记录中收集数据。有了这些数据，就有可能构建一个紧密的时间顺序，以确定在动荡的查科和后查科时代，凉鞋的设计风格是如何被操纵的，以表明不同规模和组织结构的群体成员。

In this doctoral dissertation award Benjamin Bellorado a graduate student from the University of Arizona, working under the supervision of Dr. Ronald Towner, will collect data for his PhD dissertation. Thus, in addition to the resultant knowledge this grant will serve to further the intellectual development and career trajectory of a promising young scientist. Using long term archaeological data the project investigates the often subtle ways in which individuals signal group affiliation as well as within group status based on visible symbols. The research employs an archaeological example drawn from the prehistoric US Southwest to examine variation in symbol usage over time and correlate it with dramatic changes which occurred in social organization. While it is clear within a present day context that symbols such as jewelry or head covering may reflect group affiliation, this archaeological analysis offers the opportunity to examine variation over time spans measured in centuries. This study will be of particular interest to Southwest Native Americans as it provides insight into tribal history. Using the Ancestral Pueblo region during the tenth through thirteenth centuries as a case study, this research will considers the complex ways groups transformed the visibility of different aspects of their material world to communicate important messages about boundaries, group inclusiveness, and social identities over time. It also addresses much broader issues of adaptation and identity in times of great cultural changes on religious and political levels at multiple scales, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation associated with the Chaco system and its reorganization. Museum collections will be studied to measure and photograph sandals, acquire samples for AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating, and compile data from prior descriptive and chronometric documentation of building murals and rock art depicting sandals. With these data it will be possible to construct a tight chronological sequence to determine how sandal design styles were manipulated to signal membership within groups of different scales and organizational structures during the turbulent Chaco and post-Chaco eras.