Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Technology, Society, and Change: Shell Artifact Production among the Manteno (A.D. 800-1535) of Coastal Ecuador

在大卫L.布朗曼，本杰明卡特将分析贝壳文物从一系列的网站曾经占领的曼特诺，谁住在北部和中部海岸的厄瓜多尔从大约公元800年至1535年。这些人是像腓尼基人一样的商人，他们管理着一个从南部的智利和北部的墨西哥延伸的贸易网络。虽然他们交易许多不同的商品，其中最重要的货物是彩色贝壳珠从海洋双壳类，脊椎动物。Spondylus的自然栖息地从加州湾延伸到瓜亚基尔湾，这也是Manteno地区的南部界限。因此，他们几乎垄断了与南部安第斯山脉早熟帝国的脊椎动物贸易，在那里，这在宗教和政治上都是必不可少的。虽然在这些消费社会中已经对脊椎动物进行了研究，但在生产社会中没有完成对脊椎动物的生产和使用的研究，其中Manteno特别重要。没有这样的研究，我们就不能充分了解脊椎动物在南美洲太平洋的作用。 这项研究将弥补这一遗漏，通过分析壳生产利用一种方法被称为链operatoire。这一方法在方法和理论上都是严格的，需要收集大量关于生产技术的相关数据，以便将其与整个社会重新联系起来。超过5000件文物将被测量，分类量化和编目。该对象被恢复的背景将有助于将其重新连接到史前生活和活动空间，因此，到一个活生生的存在。将调查六个先前挖掘的考古遗址的文物，每个遗址代表曼特诺时期三个不同时期之一和两个地理区域之一。这个广泛的样本确保了该项目将密切代表通过时间和空间的曼特诺之间的外壳生产。海贝珠在贸易中发挥了重要作用，但其他贝壳文物则用于当地消费。因此，将分析所有shell工件以及相关工具。链式操作方法还没有被用来研究贝壳制品的生产，因此，将有助于这种方法的方法和理论方面，以及一般工艺生产的研究。这项研究对其他社会科学家有明显的重要性。 此外，它将通过科学分析国家遗产的一个方面，为厄瓜多尔的文化遗产做出贡献。这对厄瓜多尔沿海的人民尤其重要，他们是曼特诺人的后裔，在殖民统治中失去了许多历史。这不是一件小事;脊椎动物被用来象征厄瓜多尔和秘鲁之间最近的一项和平雅阁。传播这一信息的一种方式是与厄瓜多尔国家文化遗产研究所协调举办一次公开介绍会。该项目还将包括研究生培训，从而有助于科学考古学的继续。

Under the supervision of Dr. David L. Browman, Benjamin Carter will analyze shell artifacts from a series of sites once occupied by the Manteno, who lived on the north and central coasts of Ecuador from approximately A.D. 800 until 1535. These people were Phoenician-like merchants who managed a trade network extending from Chile in the south and Mexico to the north. Although they traded many different wares, among the most important goods were colorful shell beads made from the marine bivalve, Spondylus. The natural habitat of Spondylus extends from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Guayaquil, which is also the southern limit of the Manteno area. They had, therefore, a near monopoly on Spondylus trade to the precocious empires of the Andes to the south where it was religiously and politically essential. Although Spondylus has been studied in these consumer societies, no study has been completed on the manufacture and use of Spondylus in producing societies, of which the Manteno were of particular importance. Without such a study we cannot adequately understand the role of Spondylus in Pacific South America. This research will remedy this omission through an analysis of shell production utilizing an approach known as the chaine operatoire. This approach is both methodologically and theoretically rigorous, requiring collection of significant numbers of relevant data on the technology of production in order to reconnect it to society in general. Over 5000 artifacts will be measured, categorically quantified, and cataloged. The context from which the object was recovered will serve to reconnect it to prehistoric living and activity spaces and, therefore, to a lived existence. Artifacts from six previously excavated archaeological sites, each representing one of three different time phases of the Manteno period and one of two geographic areas, will be investigated. This broad sample ensures that the project will closely represent shell production among the Manteno through time and space. Spondylus beads served an important role in trade, but other shell artifacts were for local consumption. Therefore, all shell artifacts, as well as associated tools, will be analyzed. The chaine operatoire approach has not been used to study shell artifact production and will, therefore, contribute to both the methodological and theoretical aspects of this approach as well as to studies of craft production in general. The research will have evident importance for fellow social scientists. In addition, it will contribute to the cultural heritage of the Ecuador by scientifically analyzing one aspect of the national patrimony. This is especially important for the people of the Ecuadorian coast, who are descendants of the Manteno and have lost much of their history through colonial rule. This is no small matter; Spondylus has been used to symbolize a recent peace accord between Ecuador and Peru. One means this information will be disseminated is through a public presentation coordinated with the Ecuadorian national Institute of Cultural Patrimony. This project will also include graduate student training, thereby contributing to the continuance of scientific archaeology.