Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Food And Social Complexity

对过去社会中社会不平等的研究有助于考古学家了解社会结构的发展。具有社会政治等级的早期文明通常具有复杂的基础设施，旨在组织人员和资源的流动。例如，寺庙金字塔和堤道等令人印象深刻的建筑将当地居民与重要建筑联系起来，同时也使管理实体或个人统治者的权威合法化。社会政治力量也影响向人口提供自然资源的方式。博士论文项目通过在社会复杂性发展的早期阶段恢复和分析动物骨骼来研究家庭中的社会分化。研究动物（动物群）遗骸，主要是在考古学中以骨骼的形式幸存下来，有助于确定这些产品在该地区最初的城市化时期是否在住宅中分配不均。该项目通过概述古代国家的合作性质，有助于正在进行的关于国家起源的讨论。因此，这项研究通过研究社区的组织方式，划分统一性和等级制度，突出了一个古老社区的动态。该项目支持培训一名来自科学领域代表性不足的少数民族的博士生。考古沉积物中的动物骨骼通常被解释为人们过去食用的动物的残留物。这项研究有助于回答一个核心问题，即在该网站上，精英成员（平民）与非精英成员（平民）之间的地位差异是否通过饮食得到了明确的界定。通过分析物种分布模式，该项目将：（1）确定本地和非本地动物的数量;（2）揭示是否存在难以获得的生物与常见生物;（3）确定家庭中不同比例的动物的数量。博士生将挖掘几个家庭结构和他们的垃圾。将使用常见的动物考古学量化单位对动物区系样本进行编目、称重和计数。将对定量数据进行统计分析和图形建模。将这种动物考古学调查与家庭结构设计和建筑材料，住宅位置和相关文物的检查相结合，对于能够识别史前人类的社会身份至关重要。这种方法还为古代人口中的社会不平等提供了背景支持，同时促进了对当代相关问题的逐步理解：对自然资源分配的社会经济控制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The study of social inequality in past societies has helped archeologists understand the development of social structures. Earlier civilizations with sociopolitical hierarchies often had complex infrastructure designed to organize movement of people and resources. For example, impressive constructions like temple pyramids and causeways, connected local residents to important buildings while also legitimizing the authority of governing entities or individual rulers. Sociopolitical powers also influence the way natural resources are supplied to a population. The doctoral dissertation project examines social differentiation in households through the recovery and analysis of animal bones at a site in an early stage of social complexity development. Examining animal (faunal) remains, which primarily survive in archaeology as bones, help to determine if these products were unevenly allocated within residences during the period of initial urbanization in the region. This project contributes to ongoing discussions on the origins of states by outlining the cooperative nature of an archaic state. The research thus highlights dynamics of an ancient community by studying the way neighborhoods were organized demarcating unity and hierarchy. This project supports the training of a doctoral student from an underrepresented minority in the sciences. Animal bones in archaeological deposits are often interpreted as preserved remnants of animals that people consumed in the past. This study aids in answering the central question of whether status differentiation in the form of elite to nonelite members (commoners) at the site were clearly defined through diet. By analyzing patterns in species distribution, the project will: (1) identify amounts of local and non-local animals; (2) reveal the presence or absence of difficult to acquire vs. common organisms; and (3) determine the quantity of dissimilar proportions of fauna amongst households. The doctoral student will excavate several household structures and their refuse disposals. Faunal samples will be catalogued, weighed, and counted using common zooarchaeological quantification units. Quantitative data will be statistically analyzed and graphically modeled. Coupling this zooarchaeological investigation with examinations of household structural design and building material, residential location, and associated artifacts is essential to being able to recognize social identities among the prehistoric people. Such an approach also provides contextual support for social inequality in an ancient population while furthering the progressive understanding of a contemporary and relevant issue: socioeconomic control over the distribution of natural resources.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.