Doctoral Dissertation Research: Innovating Iconographic Analysis to Improve Understanding of the Relationship between Social Organization and Ritual in Indigenous American Culture

这个项目考察了古代物质物品在过去的美洲印第安人社区中的作用。以前的考古学术经常试图利用西方传统的框架来理解土著文物及其意义。相比之下，这个项目在当代北美原住民文化所信奉的哲学原则的背景下诠释了古代美洲印第安人的陶瓷。这种方法对土著艺术的意义产生了新的见解，即这些物品可能如何为土著社区的神圣和世俗基础做出贡献。重要的是，这一方法还包括与现代美洲印第安人及其部落历史保护办公室的频繁交流，表明了以土著主题为重点的北美考古研究如何能够以伦理和尊重的方式进行。该项目最终力求产生可供后代社区以他们认为对自己的人民和部落目标最有价值的方式使用的成果。一个虚拟博物馆展览，展示船只照片、3D模型和解释细节，制作并与土著合作者以及其他学者和普通公众分享，作为部落的愿望。博士生特别评估了公元15世纪美国印第安人在阿肯色州和密苏里州的密西西比山谷生产的装饰陶瓷的政治和宇宙学意义。在这里，生活在人口稠密和高度争议的政治景观中的陶工创造了大量描绘土著宇宙、精灵和文化英雄的彩绘和雕刻的陶器。对这一艺术的考察为生活在美国南部的过去的土著社区之间的政治和宗教之间的关系提供了新的视角。利用图像分析、3D建模和地理信息系统的创新组合，这个项目(1)描述了这些陶器的生产、功能和图像的基本方面，然后(2)在美国印第安人哲学原则的背景下解释了这个艺术语料库的神圣和世俗意义。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 examines the role of ancient material objects in past American Indian communities. Previous archaeological scholarship has often attempted to understand Native artifacts and their significance using frameworks informed by Western traditions. In contrast, this project interprets ancient American Indian ceramics within the context of philosophical tenets espoused by contemporary Native North American cultures. This approach generates novel insights into the significance of Indigenous art, namely how such objects may have contributed to the sacred and secular underpinnings of Native communities. Importantly, this approach, which also includes frequent communication with modern American Indian nations and their tribal historic preservation offices, demonstrates how North American archaeological research focusing on Indigenous topics can be conducted ethically and respectfully. This project ultimately strives to produce results that can be used by descendant communities in ways that they deem most valuable to their own people and tribal objectives. A virtual museum exhibit displaying vessel photos, 3D models, and interpretive details produced and shared with Native collaborators as well as other scholars and the general public as the tribes wish.The doctoral student specifically assesses the political and cosmological significance of decorated ceramics produced by American Indians in the Mississippi Valley of Arkansas and Missouri during the fifteenth century AD. Here, potters living within a densely populated and highly contentious political landscape created a large quantity of painted and engraved ceramic vessels that depicted the Native cosmos, spirit beings, and culture heroes. An examination of this art offers new perspectives on the relationships between politics and religion among past Indigenous communities living in the American South. Using an innovative combination of iconographic analysis, 3D modeling, and geographic information systems, this project (1) describes fundamental aspects of production, function, and imagery among these pottery vessels and then (2) interprets the sacred and secular significance of this art corpus within the context of American Indian philosophical tenets.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.