Long Term Effects of Colonization on Culture Change

该项目调查并比较了非精英玛雅人对社会变革的贡献，这些变革与第一个世纪的殖民遭遇的深刻影响有关。这项研究的重点是家庭和社区尺度上的不同反应，揭示了这些实体如何面对和忍受一段可怕的社会动荡时期。土著住区的经验、制定的战略和结果几乎没有一致性，本项目在多个住区采用的比较、区域方法记录了普通人采用的战略。在前现代国家和早期殖民时期，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，比较了农村对社会变革的看法，以了解书面历史范围之外的当地适应。在跨文化和历史上，在社会分裂和崩溃的时代，农村地区往往是文化保护和创新的源泉。由于饥荒、干旱、瘟疫、疾病、迫害和剥削，北玛雅人坚持了一个半世纪的人口急剧减少，随后人口恢复。历史资料没有充分肯定早期殖民时期土著居民的韧性和创新精神，以及他们长期的历史成就，正如今天有500万尤加特玛雅语使用者的持续存在以及他们对全球社会的持续贡献所表明的那样。该项目代表了一项国际和跨学科合作，为大学生和专业人员提供研究培训和出版机会，包括尤卡泰克玛雅人后裔。它还有助于教育和培训当地玛雅助理和接待村庄，以了解和保护文化遗产。在这种脱节的政治经济背景下，城镇、家庭和个人是如何被动或主动地协商结果的？他们是否参与抵抗（直接或隐藏），谈判（人际或通过法律机制），合并（如基督教教义或欧洲美食的各个方面），合作（短暂或长期），逃跑（临时或永久），或这些方法的动态变化组合？这些回应是根据以下数据重建的：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、家庭财富或贫困的比较、批准的和黑市的货物交换、对野生、驯化和自然资源的开发、增加生产能力、以及家庭单位的稳定性、持续时间和增长。研究人员带来了遥感数据分析（激光雷达）、行人定居点调查和绘图、挖掘和家庭材料组合（人工制品）的实验室分析、放射性碳测年、动物资源和植物（饮食重建）以及历史档案方面的专业知识。通过与调查人员对该地区前哥伦布时代晚期和殖民时代之前的时期的家庭考古的广泛数据集（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。

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.