Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Social and Political Interaction in South Africa

在Roderick J.McIntosh博士的监督下，Alexander Antonites将对两个考古定居点Mutamba和Vhunyela进行挖掘和数据分析，这两个定居点位于南部非洲最早的类似国家的政体K2和Mapungubwe的外围，可追溯到公元1000年至公元1300年。Mutamba和Vhunyela的腹地位置非常适合研究小规模社区如何构建与新兴政治中心的互动。太多时候，人们过于强调控制和直接源于更复杂的中心的同质性。安东尼派的挖掘和分析将测试一种模型，该模型将该地区视为由地理上分离但相互作用的社区组成。这些互动被认为是在当地构建的，而不是从上面精心编排的。研究以关于家庭身份、互动模式、协会和社区层面的社会组织的具体问题为指导。特别是，这项研究的目的是通过对两个定居点的家庭和公共区域进行比较挖掘，确定家庭之间在食物模式、获取外来物品和手工艺品生产活动方面的差异。将使用的分析方法包括陶瓷岩相法和电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICPMS)来追踪陶瓷的来源。将陶瓷采购到他们的制造地点，将表明是否存在对生产和再分配模式的集中式垄断，或者分散的本地材料交换的替代预期是否是更好的解释。对房屋地板和庭院进行化探采样，以及对挖掘出的土壤进行漂浮，将恢复小规模的文化和环境数据。这将被用来测试对强化贡品生产的预期是否足够，或者生产是否旨在满足当地需求。值得注意的是，该项目超越了南非铁器时代对陶瓷数据的过分强调，同时纳入了植硅体、淀粉、电感耦合等离子体质谱、岩相学和宏观植物学研究的多条证据。通过使用将互动模式和身份的作用考虑在内的范式，这项研究将有助于对南非过去的变异性有更微妙的看法。它背离了南非考古学的标准模式，相反，它探索了物质文化中的重大差异。审查K2/马本古布政体边远边界的可变性和机构，有望为研究南非以外的新兴区域政体提供一个范例。该项目还增加了一个世界性的研究机构，在这些研究中，对周边社区的考虑导致对早期政治的更全面的理解。因此，该项目将有助于在中美洲、东亚和安第斯山脉等不同地区就政治互动和争议进行辩论。这项研究旨在通过关注更大规模的社会变化与主要居住在过去的普通人进行的日常实践之间的关系，来提炼早期政治的概念。

Under the supervision of Dr. Roderick J. McIntosh, Alexander Antonites will conduct excavations and analyze data from two archaeological settlements, Mutamba and Vhunyela, located on the periphery of southern Africa's earliest state-like polities, K2 and Mapungubwe, dating from AD1000 to AD1300. The hinterland location of Mutamba and Vhunyela is ideal to study how small-scale communities structure interaction with emerging political centers. Too often, there is an overemphasis on control and homogeneity stemming directly from the more complex center. Excavations and analysis by Antonites will test a model that views this region as comprised of geographically separate but interacting communities. These interactions are believed to be structured locally rather than orchestrated from above.The research is guided by specific questions regarding household identity, patterns of interaction, association and social organization at a community level. In particular, the study aims to identify differences in foodway patterns, access to exotic items and craft production activities between households through comparative excavations of both household and public areas at the two settlement sites. Among the analytical methods to be used are ceramic petrography and Inductively Coupled Mass Plasma Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to trace the source of ceramics. Sourcing ceramics to their manufacturing locales will indicate whether centralized monopolies over production and redistribution patterns existed, or whether the alternative expectation for dispersed local exchange of materials is a better explanation. The geochemical sampling of house floors and courtyards and the flotation of excavated soils will recover small-scale cultural and environmental data. This will be used to test whether expectations for intensified tribute based production are adequate, or whether production was intended to satisfy local needs. Significantly, this project moves beyond the over-emphasis of South African Iron Age studies on ceramic data by simultaneously incorporating multiple lines of evidence from phytolith, starch, ICP-MS, petrographic and macro botanical studies. By using a paradigm that takes interaction patterns and the role of identity into account, the research will contribute to a more nuanced view of variability in the South African past. It is a departure from normative models in South African archaeology and, instead, explores significant variation in material culture. Examining variability and agency on the outlying frontier of the K2/Mapungubwe polity will hopefully provide an example for research on emerging regional polities beyond South Africa. The project also adds to a worldwide body of research in which consideration of peripheral communities results in a more comprehensive understanding of early politics. As such, the project will contribute to debates concerning political interaction and contestation in areas as diverse as Mesoamerica, East Asia, and the Andes. This research is intended to refine conceptions of early politics by focusing on the relationship between larger scale social change and the daily practices carried out by common people who primarily populated the past.