Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Migration and Social Organization in Times of Culture Change

在世界多个地区，许多前哥伦布时代的国家制度形成并崩溃，导致了广泛的社会政治动乱时期。一个主要的考古学问题是，当地社区如何通过重新谈判权力、领土和群体身份来经历和适应地区国家制度的兴衰。在这篇博士论文提案中，研究人员通过对一组区域停尸房组合的生物考古学研究来研究这一主题。这些都发生在一个地区帝国的衰落和另一个地区帝国的崛起之间。这项研究调查了社会在国家扩张时期用来巩固权力和整合社区的战略和机制，或者在国家衰落时期发展较小规模的地方和地区系统，以及重新谈判领土和群体认同的战略和机制。考古工作对当代地区人口也具有重要意义，他们与史前群体保持着牢固的文化联系，并声称他们是当地的祖先。因此，这项研究有助于社区努力促进、保护和保存文化遗产。通过结合遗传、同位素和骨学分析，研究人员重建了亲属关系、社区组成、移民和群体认同的各个方面，以了解社区的性质以及它是如何受到印加帝国后来崛起的影响的。生物考古学分析提供了关于社区和社会群体组成的精细视角，以及过去个人的生活经验。锶(87Sr/86Sr)和氧(ẟ18O)同位素分析记录了过去的迁移，以确定人口迁移如何促进了社会的形成，以及后来印加的影响是否涉及广泛的人口迁移。古代DNA(ADNA)分析重建了当地社区内部和社区之间生物联系的性质，以确定社区通过亲属关系相互联系的程度。基因分析还揭示了与印加帝国扩张有关的第一代移民是否与当地个人生育了孩子，这将提供相互交织的亲属网络的证据。最后，对颅顶改变的观察与同位素和遗传数据相结合，以确定这一可见特征如何被用来传达和展示该地区社会地位、亲属关系或身份的各个方面。通过整合关于社区如何形成、相互作用和定义自身的多条互补证据，这项研究重建了过去的社区和个人如何经历社会政治变化的影响。这一奖项反映了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。

In multiple regions of the world numerous pre-Columbian state systems formed and collapsed resulting in periods of widespread socio-political upheaval. A major archaeological question is how local communities experienced and adapted to the rise and fall of regional state systems through the renegotiation of power, territory, and group identity. In this doctoral dissertation proposal researchers investigate this topic through a bioarchaeological study of one set of regional mortuary assemblages. These date between the fall of one regional empire and the rise of another. The study investigates the strategies and mechanisms the society used to either consolidate power and integrate communities during times of state expansion, or develop smaller-scale local and regional systems, and renegotiate territory and group identity during periods of state decline. The archaeological work is also significant to the contemporary regional population who retain strong cultural connections to the prehistoric group and claim them as local ancestors. The research thus contributes to community efforts to promote, protect, and preserve cultural patrimony. Through combined genetic, isotopic, and osteological analyses the researchers reconstruct aspects of kinship, community composition, migration, and group identity to understand the nature of the community and how it was impacted by the later rise of the Inca empire. Bioarchaeological analyses provide fine-grained perspectives on community and social group composition, and the lived experiences of past individuals. Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (ẟ18O) isotope analyses document past migration to determine how population movements contributed to the formation of the society, and whether later Inca influence involved extensive population relocation. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses reconstruct the nature of biological relatedness within and between local communities to determine the extent to which communities were interconnected via kinship. Genetic analysis also reveal whether first generation migrants associated with Inca imperial expansion were having children with local individuals, which would provide evidence of interwoven kinship networks. Finally, observations of cranial vault modification are integrated with the isotopic and genetic data to determine how this visible trait was used to communicate and display aspects of social status, kinship, or identity in the region. By integrating multiple lines of complementary evidence for how communities formed, interacted, and defined themselves, the research reconstructs how past communities and individuals experienced the effects of socio-political change.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.