Power, Craft Production, and Exchange in Southern Mesoamerica

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Patricia Urban、EdwardSchortman和Marne Ausec女士一直致力于描述和解释洪都拉斯西北部毗邻的纳科（Naco）和下卡库拉帕山谷（cacaulapalleley）内部史前权力关系的变化。最基本的问题一直是，而且仍然是：“少数人是如何统治多数人的？”要回答这个看似简单的问题，就需要考察当地统治者如何在其社会内部整合政治和经济力量，以及如何与邻国的统治者结成联盟。指导本研究的假设提出：1。统治者通过垄断当地民众所重视和需要的进口商品，以及当地生产的物品，如陶瓷器皿和石器，来行使统治；2.平民将自己的劳动和忠诚奉献给当地的权贵，以换取这些商品；3. 平民不愿意慢慢地依赖，他们也利用自己的技能和即时可用的资源，尽可能多地制造物品供自己使用和交易，从而减少对地方领主的依赖；4. 这种竞争导致人口被个人、家庭或派系所拥有的权力和所享有的财富所划分。1990年至1996年，美国国家科学基金会在纳科资助的工作有助于建立这一模型；同样由NSF资助的1999年至2000年在卡库拉帕河谷下游进行的调查对于验证这些想法至关重要。在卡库拉帕下游7平方公里的调查中，确定了一个主要的政治首都，埃尔Coyote，有超过340个史前建筑，覆盖0.7平方公里。在El Coyote和五个农村遗址中，挖掘了2850平方米的土地和大约40座建筑，揭示了与预期明显不同的占领历史。具体来说，新出现的数据模式表明，首先，El Coyote在古典时期晚期（公元600-950年；该遗址早在公元200年就建立了）变得突出，可能是作为与它同时代的更大的纳科山谷La Sierra的前哨基地。第二，与其呆在拉塞拉的阴影下，埃尔Coyote的统治者在公元1000年建立了他们的独立。第三，在他们新获得的自治权的基础上，低卡库拉帕的权贵们在公元1000年到1300年之间，建立了一个规模和复杂程度都在不断增长的领域，并从遥远的墨西哥中部和危地马拉的太平洋沿岸获得了货物，而当时邻近的社会，包括纳科的社会，都遭受了严重的衰退。评估这些初步的解释需要进一步分析陶瓷、石器、动物和植物遗骸，以及人类骨骼，这将在2001年5月至12月期间在美国国家科学基金会的支持下进行。这些研究将集中在：1。对文物，特别是陶瓷的风格研究，旨在帮助确定沉积物的日期，并推断卡库拉帕下游居民长期享有的外部联系；2. 旨在确定El Coyote及其腹地居民从事的专业生产活动的范围和规模的技术分析；3. 功能研究旨在重建消费和生产模式在时间和空间上的变化；4. 分配评估，以测试暗示财富和权力差异的人工制品模式；5. 对骨骼遗骸进行检查，以描述人口统计过程和压力（例如，饮食不足，受伤，由于某些职业的独特运动而产生的身体变化），这些都是较低的Cacaulapa人口所继承的。这项计划中的工作对于书写低卡库拉帕山谷的史前历史，以及比较那里和其他古代国家的政治和经济过程的操纵方式至关重要。这项研究不仅适用于洪都拉斯，甚至也适用于古代新世界，还适用于任何一个追求权力的人试图改变社会、而另一些人抵制统治的社会。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Patricia Urban, EdwardSchortman, and Ms. Marne Ausec have worked to describe and explain changes inprehistoric power relations within the adjoining Naco and lower Cacaulapavalleys, Northwestern Honduras. The basic question has been, and remains,"How did a few come to rule the many?" Answering this deceptivelystraightforward query requires examining the ways in which local rulersmarshaled political and economic forces within their societies and forgedalliances with peers in neighboring realms. The hypothesis guiding thisresearch proposes that: 1. Rulers exercised dominion by monopolizing localaccess to imported commodities valued and needed by the general populace, aswell as locally produced items, such as ceramic vessels and stone tools; 2.Commoners surrendered their labor and loyalty to local notables in return foraccess to these goods; 3. Unwilling to go gently into dependence, commonersalso used their skills and immediately available resources to make as manyitems for their own use and trade as possible, thereby minimizing reliance onlocal lords; 4. This competition resulted in a population divided by thepower ndividuals, families, or factions could wield and the wealth they enjoyed.Work funded by the National Science Foundation in Naco, from 1990-1996, wasinstrumental in establishing this model; investigations pursued in the lowerCacaulapa valley from 1999-2000, also funded by the NSF, are crucial totesting these ideas. Survey of 7km2 in the lower Cacaulapa drainageidentified a major political capital, El Coyote, with over 340 prehistoricstructures covering 0.7km2. Excavation of 2,850m2 on and around 40 buildingsat El Coyote and in five rural sites revealed a history of occupation thatdiverged markedly from the expected. Specifically, emerging data patternssuggest that first, El Coyote came to prominence during the Late Classicperiod (AD 600-950; the site was founded as early as AD200), possibly as anoutpost of its larger Naco Valley contemporary, La Sierra. Second, ratherthan staying within La Sierra's shadow, El Coyote's rulers established theirindependence by AD 1000. Third, building on their new-found autonomy, lowerCacaulapa notables went on to fashion a realm that was growing in size andcomplexity, and acquiring goods from as far away as central Mexico andGuatemala's Pacific coast, between AD 1000-1300, when neighboring societies,including those in Naco, suffered profound declines. Assessing these preliminary interpretations requires further analyses of ceramics, stone tools, faunal and floral remains, as well as human skeletons, to be conducted with National Science Foundation support during May through December, 2001. These studies will focus on: 1. stylistic studies of artifacts, particularly ceramics, designed to help date deposits, and infer the external connections enjoyed by lower Cacaulapa residents through time; 2. technological analyses aimed at identifying the range and scale of specialized production activities in which residents of El Coyote and its hinterland engaged; 3. functional studies aimed at reconstructing changes in patterns of consumption and production across time and space; 4. distributional assessments, to test for artifact patterns suggestive of wealth and power differences; 5. examination of skeletal remains to describe demographic processes as well as stresses (for example, dietary deficiencies, injuries, physical changes from movements unique to certain occupations) to which lower Cacaulapa populations were heir. The planned work is crucial to writing lower Cacaulapa valley prehistory and comparing the ways in which political and economic processes were manipulated there and within other ancient states. The research applies not just to Honduras, or even the ancient New World, but to any society in which those seeking power tried to alter their societies, while others resisted domination.