Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Genes, Language and Culture in Tewa Ethnogenesis

斯科特·奥特曼在米歇尔·黑格蒙博士的指导下，将调查公元13世纪普韦布洛印第安人从四角地区迁徙到新墨西哥州北部的事件，作为人口流动事件影响基因、语言和文化的不同方式的案例研究。公元13世纪，新墨西哥州格兰德河谷北部人口的增加一直与四角地区向西部和西北部的移民有关。格兰德河当代普韦布洛语言的多样性表明，说几种不同语言的人参与了这些移民，但格兰德河移民后遗址的物质文化没有很好地映射到历史语言分布上，也没有表现出与四角地区早期考古文化的明显连续性。语言和考古学之间缺乏契合性，这就是为什么格兰德河的起源仍然是北美考古学中的一个经典谜题。这项拟议的研究将通过调查特瓦人的起源来重新审视这个谜题，特瓦人是格兰德河主要的普韦布洛地区之一。具体地说，这项研究将侧重于今天的特瓦盆地人口与梅萨维德地区古代人口之间的关系，该地区最常被引用为特瓦家园。该项目将使用五条调查路线追踪特瓦人的遗传、语言和文化背景：1)将使用骨骼遗骸数据评估特瓦盆地和台地人口之间的生物关系；2)特瓦人成为一种独特语言的时间长度将通过对特瓦人和相关语言中考古可断代物品的词语的比较分析来估计；3)将通过考古年代测定具有特瓦人名字的遗址来估计特瓦人在格兰德河地区被使用的时间长度；4)将使用一种新的方法来评估在移民之前，梅萨维德地区是否讲特瓦语言，该方法将检查语言中隐含的隐喻表达的考古记录；5)将利用通过民族志和历史移民研究制定的框架，检查维德梅萨地区和特瓦盆地遗址之间物质文化的连续性和不连续性。这项跨学科的研究将澄清特定的美洲印第安人社区和考古遗址之间的联系，并可能有助于联邦法律规定的遣返程序。它还将评估一种追踪言语群体的新方法，并将有助于人类学各分领域的统一。公众将通过乌鸦峡谷考古中心的项目直接参与，研究成果将通过这些项目传播给公众和美国印第安人顾问。最后，这项研究将通过确定四角地区某些国家公园和纪念碑使用的语言，极大地扩大对考古遗址的公开解释。

Scott Ortman, under the direction of Dr. Michelle Hegmon, will investigate the 13th century A.D. migration of Pueblo Indians from the Four Corners area to northern New Mexico as a case study of the different ways genes, language and culture are affected by episodes of population movement. The rise of population in the northern Rio Grande valley of New Mexico during the 13th century A.D. has long been linked to migration from the Four Corners area to the west and northwest. The diversity of contemporary Pueblo languages in the Rio Grande suggests that people speaking several different languages took part in these migrations, but the material culture of post-migration Rio Grande sites does not map onto historic language distributions very well, and does not exhibit obvious continuities with earlier archaeological cultures of the Four Corners. This lack of fit between language and archaeology is why the origins of the Rio Grande Pueblos remains a classic puzzle in North American archaeology. The proposed research will take a fresh look at this puzzle by investigating the origins of the Tewa, one of the major Pueblo groups of the Rio Grande. Specifically, this research will focus on relationships between the present-day Tewa basin population and the ancient population of the Mesa Verde region, the area most commonly cited as the Tewa homeland. The project will trace the genetic, linguistic, and cultural background of the Tewa using five lines of investigation: 1) biological relationships between Tewa basin and Mesa Verde populations will be assessed using data from skeletal remains; 2) the length of time Tewa has been a distinct language will be estimated through comparative analysis of words for archaeologically-datable objects in Tewa and related languages; 3) the length of time Tewa has been spoken in the Rio Grande will be estimated through archaeological dating of sites with Tewa names; 4) whether Tewa was spoken in the Mesa Verde region prior to migration will be assessed using a new method, which examines the archaeological record for expressions of the metaphors embedded in languages; 5) continuities and discontinuities in material culture between Mesa Verde and Tewa basin sites will be examined using frameworks developed through ethnographic and historic migration studies. This interdisciplinary research will clarify affiliations between specific American Indian communities and archaeological sites, and may assist in the repatriation process mandated by federal law. It will also evaluate a new method for tracing speech communities and will contribute to reunification of the subfields of Anthropology. Members of the public will participate directly through programs at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, and research results will be disseminated to the public and to American Indian advisors through these programs. Finally, this research will greatly expand public interpretation of archaeological sites by determining the languages that were spoken in certain national parks and monuments of the Four Corners area.