Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Early Postclassic Period Households At Rio Viejo, Oaxaca, Mexico

这项研究通过对微量残留物的仔细检查，考察了墨西哥沿海瓦哈卡州里奥维埃霍早期(公元800-1100)后经典遗址的家庭社会组织和经济活动。该项目不仅是对瓦哈卡早期后古典时期家庭的首批重大研究之一，而且对于在其他地区和世界其他地区工作的考古学家来说，也应该被证明是有用的，他们有兴趣将微尺度方法应用于家庭研究。家庭考古学通常使用建筑、墓葬和文物来重建家庭活动。但文物在理解家庭活动方面存在问题，因为它们通常被回收到垃圾堆或填充物中，可能远离它们的使用地点。相比之下，微小残留物，包括微小的植物遗骸、土壤沉积的细微变化和有机残留物的化学残留物，不太可能从其使用地点运走。古民族植物学、微形态学和土壤化学技术检测食物加工和烹饪活动，这些活动很重要，因为分享食物通常定义了家庭社会团体的成员资格。在里约维埃霍，对两个社区的12座建筑进行了挖掘，这些建筑都是普通的单间房屋，发现了文物和建筑上的相似之处，这表明它是一名平民，但每个地区的埋葬做法和其他特征都不同。这项研究将解决仅靠传统数据无法回答的国内活动组织中的相似和不同问题。文物和建筑的一致性可能会掩盖这两个地区之间的真正差异，与食物相关的活动的分布可能比建筑本身更好地反映家庭划分。此外，由于居住环境中的生产活动与更大规模的政治和经济目标相联系，该项目将考虑里约热内卢早期的后古典时期居住者如何在城市中心“崩溃”后重新协调的政治框架内进行经济合作。

This research examines household social organization and economic activities at the Early Postclassic (A.D. 800-1100) site of Rio Viejo in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, through a meticulous examination of micro-residues. The project not only serves as one of the first major studies of Early Postclassic period households in Oaxaca, but should also prove useful for archaeologists working in other regions and other parts of the world who are interested in applying micro-scale methods to household research. Household archaeology conventionally uses architecture, burials, and artifacts to reconstruct domestic activities. But artifacts present problems for understanding household activities, because they are normally recovered in trash deposits or fill, potentially far removed from where they were used. Micro-residues, including microscopic plant remains, fine-scale changes in soil deposition, and chemical residues of organic debris, in contrast, are less likely to have traveled from their locations of use. The techniques of paleoethnobotany, micromorphology, and soil chemistry detect food processing and cooking activities, which are important because sharing food often defines membership in household social groups. At Rio Viejo, excavations of twelve buildings in two neighborhoods of modest, single-roomed houses revealed similarities in artifacts and architecture that suggest "commoner" status, yet burial practices and other features differ in each area. The research will address questions about similarities and differences in the organization of domestic activities that traditional data alone cannot answer. Uniformity in artifacts and architecture could mask real differences between the two areas, and the distribution of food-related activities might better reflect household divisions than the buildings themselves. Also, since productive activities in residential settings are linked with larger-scale political and economic goals, this project will consider how Rio Viejo's Early Postclassic occupants cooperated economically within a newly reconceived political framework following the "collapse" of urban centers.