Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Visual and Technical Styles: An Integrative Approach to the Identification of Archaeological Social Boundaries

在Jodie O'Gorman博士的指导下，Jeff Chivis将研究在早期中部林地时期（约公元前50年-公元250年），霍普韦尔信仰被引入西密歇根的过程中，社会政治和技术理念的不同类型的互动和共享。在此期间，一个新的史前社会出现在美国中西部。它以更复杂的宗教体系和社会组织形式为特征，拥有包括金字塔在内的纪念性遗址和成千上万的人口。虽然人们对核心地区的发展了解很多，但霍普韦尔的影响是如何传播的却不太清楚。一些考古学家认为是从核心向外传播的是思想而不是人，而另一些人则认为传播的主要是间接影响。通过对一个边远地区的研究，奇维斯先生将直接解决这个问题。这项研究很重要，因为它提供了对传统社会中人们和思想如何以复杂的方式和长时间传播和互动的见解。在西密歇根，这种霍普韦尔式的转变可以通过一个独特的殡葬项目的实施来证明，该项目涉及到土堆的建造、坟墓包裹物的利用以及陶器上特色设计元素的应用。奇维斯先生的研究将检查来自密歇根州西部和印第安纳州西北部的中部林地陶器，以记录不同类型的社区和霍普韦尔信息最初传播到密歇根州西部的互动。陶器数量丰富，在考古环境中保存完好，有可能为了解其生产者的行为和文化联系提供洞见。奇维斯先生的研究采用了一种综合的方法，将陶器的风格分析与成分分析结合起来。利用陶瓷岩石学作为成分分析的主要方法，本研究设计将探索在考古记录中发现身份标记的新方法，并将允许人们区分思想的传播与人们的实际运动。这种方法将比以前在研究区域内可能提供更全面的身份、社区和互动网络识别。这项研究的广泛影响在于，作为密歇根州联邦政府承认的一个部落的成员，奇维斯先生将加强代表性不足/少数民族个人在考古学中的参与。奇维斯先生将通过潜在的同行评审出版物和在各种国家会议上的演讲，将结果数据提供给他的部落和更大的人类学社区。向当地部落实体传播这些信息将使他们对自己的过去有一个补充的看法，并可以促进学术界与美洲土著部落政府之间更频繁和有价值的交流。

Under the supervision of Dr. Jodie O'Gorman, Jeff Chivis will examine the varying types of interactions and the sharing of sociopolitical and technological ideas that were associated with the introduction of Hopewellian beliefs into west Michigan during the early Middle Woodland period (~50 B.C. - A.D. 250). During this time interval a new prehistoric society emerged in the US Midwest. Characterized by a more complex religions system and form of social organization it is responsible for monumental sites which included mounded "pyramids" and populations numbered in the thousands. While much is understood about development in the core area, how Hopewellian influence spread is much less clear. Some archaeologists believe that it was ideas rather than people which moved outwards from the core while others argue that it was primarily indirect influence which spread. Through study in one outlying region Mr. Chivis will address this question directly. The research is important because it provides insight into how in traditional societies people and ideas can spread and interact in complex fashion and over extended periods of time.In west Michigan, this Hopewellian transition is evidenced by the implementation of a distinct mortuary program involving the construction of burial mounds, the utilization of grave inclusions, and the application of characteristic design elements on pottery vessels. Mr. Chivis' research will examine Middle Woodland pottery from west Michigan and northwest Indiana to record the different types of communities and interactions involved in the initial spread of Hopewellian information into west Michigan. Ceramics are abundant and well preserved in archaeological contexts and have the potential to provide insight into the behaviors and cultural affiliations of their producers. Mr. Chivis' research employs a comprehensive methodology by uniting stylistic pottery analysis with compositional analysis. Utilizing ceramic petrography as the primary method of compositional analysis, this research design will explore new ways to discover markers of identity in the archaeological record and will permit one to distinguish between the spread of ideas vs. the actual movement of people. This methodology will provide a significantly more comprehensive identification of identity, communities, and interaction networks than has previously been possible within the study region.The broader impact of this research rests on the fact that, as a member of a federally recognized tribe in Michigan, Mr. Chivis will be enhancing the involvement of underrepresented/minority individuals within archaeology. Mr. Chivis will make the resulting data available to his tribe and the larger anthropological community through potential peer-reviewed publications and presentations at various national conferences. Dissemination of this information to local tribal entities will provide them with a supplementary perspective of their past and could promote more frequent and worthwhile communication between academia and Native American tribal governments.