Doctoral Dissertation Research: Development of Colonial Interaction

关于不平等的权力关系如何在时间和空间中产生和转变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，不同的社会网络、有争议的管辖权和有争议的资源控制塑造了边境地区制度的发展。考古学特别适合研究殖民地边境地区的政治经济，因为它有能力记录特定地区的基础设施和生产战略。这个项目将探讨殖民地边境地区的政治经济关系。通过对支持当地殖民制度的具体生产关系的调查，本研究将有助于殖民主义的政治经济学。这项研究侧重于导致暴力冲突的几十年的权力动态，也丰富了对导致殖民背景下破裂和暴力的条件的理解。这项研究是一个跨学科遗产项目的一部分，该项目旨在探索文化遗产与当地社区身份之间的关系。研究将有助于正在进行的、社区驱动的努力，以揭示和保存在暴力冲突之前、期间和之后的生活历史。这篇博士论文主要关注的是检查在殖民地边境地区结构地方权力动态的政治经济关系。更具体地说，本研究调查了一种殖民制度的地方迭代，地产，以及当地地产在暴力冲突之前在该地区的经济、政治和社会网络中的作用。研究人员通过评估四个地产的基础设施特征（水管理系统、糖精炼区、劳动者住房、存储特征、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。对房地产基础设施的考古调查将阐明在这片殖民地边界内形成权力分配的具体生产策略。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.