Long Term Effects of Colonization on Culture Change

这个项目调查和比较非精英玛雅人的贡献，社会变革与第一个世纪的殖民遭遇的深刻影响。这项研究的重点是在家庭和社区规模的变量响应，告知这些实体如何面对和忍受一段可怕的社会动荡。土著住区之间的经验、制定的战略和成果几乎没有统一之处，该项目在多个住区采取的比较性区域办法记录了普通人采用的战略。在前现代国家和早期殖民地环境中，家庭是社会和经济生产的基本单位。该项目以家庭考古学为重点，比较农村对社会变革的看法，以了解书面历史范围之外的地方适应。在社会分裂和崩溃的时期，乡村地区往往是文化保护和创新的源泉，这是跨文化和历史的。由于饥荒、干旱、瘟疫、疾病、迫害和剥削，北方玛雅人经历了长达世纪的人口锐减，随后人口恢复。历史资料没有充分肯定殖民地早期土著居民的适应力和创新能力，也没有充分肯定他们长期取得的历史性成功，正如今天仍有500万人说尤卡坦玛雅语以及他们对全球社会的持续贡献所表明的那样。该项目是一项国际和跨学科合作，为大学生和专业人员，包括尤卡坦玛雅后裔提供研究培训和出版机会。它还在理解和保护文化遗产方面促进对当地玛雅助理和东道村庄的教育和培训。 城镇、家庭和个人如何在这种脱节的紧急政治经济背景下被动或主动地协商结果？他们是否参与了抵抗（直接的或隐藏的）、谈判（人际的或通过法律的机制）、融合（如基督教教义或欧洲美食的各个方面）、合作（短暂的或长期的）、逃离（暂时的或永久的）或这些方法的动态变化组合？这些反应是从社区和家庭群体的空间组织，家庭规模，农业战略，致力于制作交换或贡品的劳动力，比较家庭财富或财富，批准和黑市商品交换，野生，驯化和自然资源的开发提高生产能力，稳定性，持续时间和国内单位的增长等数据中重建的。研究人员带来了遥感数据分析（激光雷达），行人定居调查和绘图，挖掘和家庭材料组合（文物），放射性碳测年，动物资源和植物（饮食重建）的实验室分析的专业知识，以及历史档案。通过与研究人员关于该地区和殖民时代之前的前哥伦布晚期家庭考古学的广泛数据集（来自先前的研究）进行比较，将有助于评估殖民主义前100年的变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This project investigates and compares nonelite Maya peoples’ contributions to social change associated with the profound impacts of the first century of Colonial encounters. This research, focuses on variable responses at the household and community scales, informs on the how these entities confronted and endured a period of dire social upheaval. There was little uniformity in the experiences, strategies enacted, and outcomes among indigenous settlements and the comparative, regional approach of this project at multiple settlements documents the strategies employed by ordinary people. The household was the fundamental unit of social and economic production for premodern states and in early Colonial settings. Focusing on household archaeology, this project compares rural perspectives on social change to understand local adaptations beyond the scope of written history. Cross-culturally and historically, countryside localities often served, in times of societal disjunction and collapse, as wellsprings of cultural preservation and innovation. Northern Maya peoples persisted through a century and a half of drastic depopulation due to famine, drought, pestilence, illness, persecution, and exploitation, followed by a demographic recovery. Historical sources inadequately credit the resiliency and innovations of indigenous householders of the early Colonial years, and their long-term historical successes, as indicated by the persistence of five million speakers of Yucatec Maya languages today and their ongoing contributions to society, globally. The project represents an international and interdisciplinary collaboration that provides research training and publication opportunities for university students and professional staff, including those of Yucatec Maya descent. It also contributes to the education and training of local Maya assistants and host villages in terms of understanding and preserving cultural heritage. How did towns, households, and individuals negotiate outcomes, passively or actively, in the emergent politico-economic contexts of this disjuncture? Did they engage in resistance (outright or hidden), negotiation (interpersonal or through legal mechanisms), incorporation (such as aspects of Christian doctrine or European cuisine), cooperation (fleeting or long-term), flight (temporary or permanent), or dynamically shifting combinations of these approaches? These responses are reconstructed from data bearing on the spatial organization of communities and house groups, family size, agrarian strategies, labor dedicated to crafting exchange or tribute goods, comparative family wealth or impoverishment, sanctioned and black market exchanges of goods, exploitation of wild, domesticated, and natural resources augmenting productive capacities, and the stability, duration, and growth of domestic units. The researchers bring expertise in the analysis of remote sensing data (Lidar), pedestrian settlement survey and mapping, excavation, and laboratory analysis of household material assemblages (artifacts), radiocarbon dating, faunal resources and botanicals (dietary reconstruction), and historical archives. Assessing changes during the first 100 years of colonialism will be facilitated by comparisons to the investigators’ extensive dataset (from prior research) on late Pre-Columbian household archaeology in the region and in the time period immediately preceding the Colonial era.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.