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

在这篇博士论文奖中，亚利桑那大学的一名研究生本杰明·贝罗拉多在罗纳德·汤纳博士的指导下工作，将为他的博士论文收集数据。因此，除了由此获得的知识外，这笔赠款还将有助于促进一位有前途的年轻科学家的智力发展和职业轨迹。利用长期的考古数据，该项目调查了个体根据可见符号发出群体从属关系以及群体内地位的微妙方式。这项研究使用了一个来自史前美国西南部的考古学例子来检验符号使用随时间的变化，并将其与社会组织中发生的戏剧性变化联系起来。虽然在当今的背景下，珠宝或头巾等符号显然可能反映了群体的联系，但这种考古分析提供了检查以几个世纪为单位的时间跨度变化的机会。这项研究将特别引起西南美洲原住民的兴趣，因为它提供了对部落历史的洞察。以公元10世纪至13世纪的普韦布洛地区为例，这项研究将考虑群体如何随着时间的推移改变其物质世界不同方面的可见性，以传达关于边界、群体包容性和社会身份的重要信息。它还涉及更广泛的适应和认同问题，涉及宗教和政治层面多层面的重大文化变革时期，提供了与查科制度及其重组有关的社会瓦解和改革的新信息。研究人员将对博物馆藏品进行研究，以测量和拍摄凉鞋，获取用于AMS(加速器质谱仪)测年的样品，并从先前描绘凉鞋的建筑壁画和岩石艺术的描述性和计时文件中汇编数据。有了这些数据，就有可能建立一个严密的时间序列，以确定凉鞋设计风格是如何被操纵，以表明在动荡的查科时代和后查科时代，不同规模和组织结构的群体的成员资格。

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.