Doctoral Dissertation Research: Development of Colonial Interaction

关于不平等的权力关系如何产生并在时间和空间上发生变化的问题是社会科学的核心。研究殖民扩张的学者对土地、劳动力和资本的新配置如何在殖民背景下构建不对称的权力动态特别感兴趣。通过特定的生产关系来评估权力的动态在殖民地边境地区尤为重要，在那里，多样化的社交网络、有争议的管辖权和有争议的资源控制塑造了边境地区机构的发展。考古学特别适合研究殖民地边境地区的政治经济，因为它能够记录特定地方的基础设施和生产战略。这个项目将探讨殖民地边界的政治经济关系。通过对支持当地殖民制度的特定生产关系的调查，这项研究将有助于殖民主义的政治经济学。这项研究的重点是导致暴力冲突的几十年中的权力动态，也丰富了对殖民地背景下导致破裂和暴力的条件的理解。这项研究是一个跨学科的遗产项目，探讨文化遗产和当地社区身份之间的关系的一部分。研究将有助于持续的，社区驱动的努力，以发现和保存有关生活的历史之前，期间和之后的暴力冲突。这篇博士论文主要关注的是考察殖民地边境地区的政治经济关系，结构化的地方权力动态。更具体地说，本研究调查一个殖民机构，地产，和当地地产的经济，政治和社交网络的暴力冲突之前，该地区的作用的地方迭代。研究人员通过评估四个地产的基础设施特征（水管理系统，制糖区，劳动力住房，存储功能，道路）的存在和分布，评估了地产对商品生产，劳动力组织和稀缺商品分配的控制证据。遗产基础设施的考古调查将阐明在这个殖民地边界内形成权力分配的具体生产战略。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。

Questions about how unequal power relations emerge and are transformed across time and space are central to the social sciences. Scholars studying colonial expansion are particularly interested in how novel configurations of land, labor, and capital structured asymmetrical power dynamics across colonial contexts. Assessing dynamics of power through specific relations of production is especially important within colonial borderlands, where diverse social networks, contested jurisdictions, and disputed resource control shaped the development of borderland institutions. Archaeology is particularly well suited for examining the political economy of colonial borderlands, through its ability to document the infrastructure and production strategies that characterized particular places. This project will explore political-economic relations in a colonial borderland. Through the investigation of the specific relations of production that supported local colonial institutions, this research will contribute to the political economy of colonialism. Focused on power dynamics in the decades leading up to a violent conflict, this research also enriches understandings of the conditions which lead to rupture and violence in colonial contexts. This research is part of an interdisciplinary heritage project that explores the relationship between cultural heritage and local community identity. Research will contribute to ongoing, community-driven efforts to uncover and preserve histories about life before, during, and after a violent conflict. This doctoral dissertation is primarily concerned with examining the political-economic relations that structured local power dynamics within a colonial borderland. More specifically, this research investigates local iterations of one colonial institution, the landed estate, and the role of local landed estates in the economic, political, and social networks of this region prior to violent conflict. The researchers assess evidence for estate control over the production of commercial goods, the organization of labor, and the distribution of scarce commodities by assessing the presence and distribution of infrastructure features (water management systems, sugar refining areas, laborer housing, storage features, roads) across four landed estates. The archaeological investigation of estate infrastructure will elucidate the specific production strategies that shaped the distribution of power within this colonial borderland.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.