The Economic, Social, and Political Reorganization of Late Prehistoric Pueblo Communities in the Silver Creek Area, Arizona

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，芭芭拉·米尔斯博士和她的同事将在亚利桑那州银溪地区的遗址进行两次实地考古研究。考古学家认为，这一地区标志着美国西南部在史前晚期发生了重大而深远的变化。来自定居模式数据的有力证据支持这样的观点，即在公元1000年至1400年之间，有大量人群迁入该地区。因此，该区域有可能阐明人口重组的原因和后果，包括移徙、聚集、融合和分散的过程。然而，相对较少的考古研究已经进行，米尔斯博士的工作将纠正这种情况。在两个野外季节的过程中，她将挖掘三个代表11世纪到14世纪不同时期的遗址。她将收集陶瓷和树木年轮样本来完善年表。她将研究人口趋势，并注意到社会和经济组织的变化。她还将比较和综合文化和古环境数据。世界各地小规模农业社会的成员往往是流动的，因为个人、家庭、家庭群体甚至整个社区都在改变居住地。这些移动的原因、移动的距离、持续的时间和最终的结果各不相同。在某些情况下，通过村庄分裂来殖民新的居住地点，并通过扩展现有的社会网络来保持与原始村庄的联系。在其他情况下，部分人口被纳入先前存在的社区和建立或扩大的社会、政治和宗教机构，以融合东道国和移徙人口。在这两种情况下，综合机制可能随之发生变化。了解社区组织的变化，特别是那些与社区一体化有关的进程，是了解更广泛的经济、社会和政治变化的关键。米尔斯博士的Silver Creek研究为长期研究这些过程提供了一个极好的机会。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为美国的史前史提供新的线索，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。鉴于当今世界人口的流动性，这项工作将增加我们对新社会实体如何出现和维持的理解。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Barbara Mills and her colleagues will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research at sites located in the Silver Creek region of Arizona. Archaeologists believe that this area marks the location of significant and far-reaching changes during the late prehistoric period in the American Southwest. There is strong evidence from settlement pattern data to support the idea that large groups of peoples moved into the region between 1000 and 1400 AD. The region therefore has the potential to shed light on the causes and consequences of population reorganization, including the processes of migration, aggregation, integration and dispersion. Relatively little archaeological research however has been conducted, and Dr. Mills' work will remedy this situation. Over the course of two field seasons she will excavate three sites representing different time periods between the 11th and 14th centuries. She will collect ceramic and tree ring samples to refine chronology. She will examine demographic trends and note changes in social and economic organization. She will also compare and synthesize cultural and paleoenvironmental data. The membership of small-scale agricultural societies throughout the world is often fluid as individuals, households, groups of households and even whole communities change residences. These moves vary in their causes, the distances moved, their permanence and ultimately in their effects. In some cases new residential sites are colonized through village fissioning and connections are maintained with the original villages through extension of existing social networks. In other cases, portions of the population are incorporated into preexisting communities and social, political and religious institutions established or extended to integrate the host and migrant populations. In both cases, changes in integrative mechanisms may ensue. Understanding changes in community organization, especially those processes relating to community integration is a key to understanding wider economic, social and political changes. Dr. Mills Silver Creek study provides an excellent opportunity to study these processes over an extended period of time. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the prehistory of the United States and provide data of interest to many archaeologists. Given the fluidity of populations in today's world, the work will increase our understanding of how new social entities emerge and are maintained.