Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Analysis of Rapid Cultural Change

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People have multiple overlapping and intersecting identities including their biology, health and socioeconomic status, that define who they are and how they interact with others. These identities can be used to empower or disenfranchise individuals and communities based on social milieu. Disruptions to social environments initiated by changing demographics (migration) or political upheaval can transform the social significance of these identities. Within this broad context and under the supervision of Dr. Margaret Judd of the University of Pittsburgh, doctoral candidate Deborah Neidich will investigate the impact of human mobility on identity construction following a period sociopolitical turmoil. This project contributes to the body of research regarding material signifiers of identity and the relationship between cultural processes and biology; it may also point to the origins of historically recognized groups that emerged during sociopolitical change. This is particularly important as it may serve as a historical analogy to modern sociopolitical issues regarding contemporary migration by highlighting a diverse history that was forged by migrations and migrants. The information obtained through this research will be the foundation for Ms Neidich’s dissertation and available electronically as well as in a series of academic publications.Ms. Neidich will use a range of sources including the skeletal biological profile (age, sex, and chemical markers of mobility) and skeletal evidence for biological stress and diet. Stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen adds a dietary signature, while grave goods analysis provides information concerning status and gender. Combined, the data can identify salient social categories to answer the following three questions: (1) Which aspects of a person’s identity were important for a community to mark at a person’s burial? (2) Were social disparities expressed as differences in health, trauma and diet, related to identity in the past? (3) Was there a shift in the perception of these categories during political change and periods of stability? This work will identify transitions in identity and mobility over an extended period of time. The project will assess patterns of change in demography, health, diet and grave good distribution to evaluate how identities were expressed prior to and transformed.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.