Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Rise and Functioning of Status Hierarchies

约翰瓦尔登（匹兹堡大学）正在调查的方式，其中后期经典（公元600 - 900）玛雅政体的兴起下多佛，伯利兹影响周围的当地精英家庭。学者们越来越多地认为，由于缺乏公开的政治权力，古典玛雅统治者依赖仪式将追随者聚集在一起。在统治阶级缺乏影响其臣民日常生活的有形力量的情况下，中间精英（介于最高统治者和平民群众之间的精英）往往扮演着统治家族和追随者之间的调解人的重要角色。瓦尔登将通过确定三个自治的地方精英家族在被新兴的下多佛政体所吸纳时，其相对财富和地位以及权力的礼仪和经济基础是如何发生变化的，来展示合并是如何影响中间精英的代理权的。地方精英是否在并入政体后失去了财富和地位以及权力基础？如果是这样的话，这将表明玛雅统治者拥有高度的政治，经济和礼仪权力。相反，如果没有明显的变化，或者被拉拢的中间精英见证了他们的权力增加，那么这将证实目前的观点，即统治精英缺乏明确的政治权力。这种方法是基于人类学的角度对当地政治领导人的合作选择外部势力，并因此提供了一个比较窗口，当代外交政策和纳入发展中国家。这项研究的结果将在瓦尔登的论文和一系列学术出版物中公布。所有数据将通过匹兹堡大学比较考古中心免费提供。该项目将成为培训当地和国际学生进行考古实践的基础，并通过一系列外联活动、讲座和讲习班，教育当地伯利兹人了解他们的过去。瓦尔登将研究位于政治首都下多佛周围的三个中间精英中心的变化;图图·乌茨纳、花卉公园和巴顿拉米，并包括来自每个中间精英中心周围的平民社区的数据。了解附庸平民的财富和生活质量，可以看出地方精英在与下属打交道时，是更倾向于剥削还是更倾向于对社区有利的策略，以及当下多佛的统治者确立自己的地位时，这种策略是如何改变的。比较这三个中间精英家族之间可能存在的差异，可以了解下多佛崛起后，中间精英保留了多少政治权力的不同因素。例如，地理位置更靠近下多佛的地方精英是否看到他们的权力更大幅度地减少，或者政治上更强大的地方精英是否拥有更多的机会来谈判他们在新政体中的角色？对住宅和仪式建筑以及这些建筑中功利性、高价值和仪式性物品的比例变化进行分析，将显示不平等、生产模式、消费和仪式活动如何随着政体的发展而变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

John Walden (University of Pittsburgh) is investigating the ways in which the rise of the Late Classic (AD 600-900) Maya polity of Lower Dover, Belize impacted surrounding local elite families. Scholars have increasingly come to view Classic Maya rulers as being reliant on ceremony to bring followers together, due to a lack of overt political power. In contexts where the ruling classes lack the tangible power to affect the everyday lives of their subjects, intermediate elites (those between the highest rulers and the commoner masses) often fulfill important roles as mediators between the ruling family and their followers. By identifying how the relative wealth and status and ceremonial and economic bases of power of three autonomous local elite families changed as they became co-opted by the emergent Lower Dover polity, Walden will show how incorporation impacted the agency of intermediate elites. Did the local elites lose wealth and status, and their bases of power upon incorporation into a polity? If so, this would suggest Maya rulers wielded high degrees of political, economic and ceremonial power. Conversely, if little change is apparent or the co-opted intermediate elites witness an increase in their power, then this would corroborate current perspectives envisaging ruling elites as lacking explicit political power. The approach is grounded in an anthropological perspective on the co-option of local political leaders by external powers, and consequentially offers a comparative window into contemporary foreign policy and incorporation in the developing world. The results of the study will be made accessible in Walden's dissertation, and a series of academic publications. All data will be freely available through the University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology. The project will form the basis for training local and international students in archaeological practice and serve to educate local Belizeans about their past through a series of outreach events, lectures and workshops. Walden will examine changes at three intermediate elite centers situated around the political capital of Lower Dover; Tutu Uitz Na, Floral Park and Barton Ramie, and include data from the commoner neighborhoods which surrounded each intermediate elite center. Understanding the wealth and quality of life of client commoners will show whether local elites favored more exploitative or communally beneficial strategies in their dealings with their subordinates, and how this changed when the rulers of Lower Dover established themselves. Comparison of possible variability between the three intermediate elite families will allow an understanding of the different factors which structured how much political power intermediate elites retained following the rise of Lower Dover. For instance, did local elites located geographically closer to Lower Dover see a more dramatic reduction in their power, or did more politically powerful local elites possess greater opportunities for negotiating their role in the new polity? Analysis of residential and ceremonial architecture and the changing proportions of utilitarian, high value and ritual items within these structures will show how inequality, patterns of production, consumption and ritual activity changed as the polity rose.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.