Understanding the Development of Hierarchical Social Organization

本研究的根本目的是为了更好地理解小规模传统社会向更大的社会单位融合并形成等级社会组织的过程和机制。研究人员认为，宗教仪式和共同信仰可以在这一过程中发挥作用，因为纵观历史，宗教仪式一直伴随着这种发展而发生。鉴于宗教作为一种整合和分裂力量的重要性，这项研究在当今具有相关性，这在许多发展中国家得到了证明。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，尼尔·沃利斯博士和约翰·克里格鲍姆博士将利用各种分析工具和档案研究，调查公元200年至600年间佛罗里达人口中广泛的宗教仪式的发展、传播和影响。这个中部林地时期的殡葬习俗，被称为“威登岛”，显示出广泛而明显的一致性，这是宗教运动的特征。这些做法的扩散显然与日益整合的社会网络和一些个人的高地位的出现是一致的。考虑到这些联系，该项目通过对人类饮食、流动性、社会互动和社区形成的调查，研究了威登岛仪式在引发新兴社会不平等中的作用。在明显的宗教平等的背景下，本研究试图准确地确定不同的社区是如何相互作用的，他们是如何整合的，以及这些趋势是如何影响该地区的社会和政治历史的。根据佛罗里达自然历史博物馆（FLMNH）收集的分布在佛罗里达半岛的13个中部林地丘遗址的藏品和现场记录，本研究将整合(1)骨骼种群的多线同位素分析，以生成与饮食和活动有关的数据；(2)骨骼分析，收集个人埋葬的基本人口统计学和生活史信息。(3)对威登岛殡葬品进行地球化学和岩石学分析，以确定其最终来源；(4)技术功能分析，概述容器的形式和功能以及工艺专业化的潜力。此外，还将通过对存档笔记的调查，评价威登岛仪式实践的统一性。这些数据和变量的相关性将揭示威登岛仪式实践和传播的具体历史趋势及其社会政治含义。这项研究更广泛的影响包括对考古方法和社会理论的贡献，对学生的培训，以及对公众的宣传和教育。在方法方面，分析协议建立在现有技术的基础上，并以创新的方式将它们结合起来。这些数据为研究威登岛复杂的区域现象提供了罕见的多维稳健性，允许对中部林地人和物体的运动和生活史进行更细致和潜在的变革理解。在理论层面上，通过对流动性和群体间互动的关注，该项目将对社会不平等原因的研究转向了对区域尺度上社区形成过程的历史调查，并对解释宗教、身份和政治冲突的交叉点具有人类学意义。本项目将为至少两名博士研究生和几名本科博物馆和实验室实习生提供高级培训和研究经验，并将成为博士学位论文、硕士学位论文和荣誉论文的基础。研究结果将广泛传播，并通过FLMNH的“探索研究”展览和配套网站进行展示。除了科学出版物外，存档数据将在网上免费提供。

The fundamental goal of this research is to better understand the processes and mechanisms by which small scale traditional societies merged into larger social units and developed hierarchical social organization. The investigators believe that religious ritual and shared beliefs can play a role in this process as throughout history religious rituals have been documented occurring alongside such development. This research has current day relevance given the importance of religion as both an integrative and divisive force as evidenced in much of the developing world.With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Neill Wallis and Dr. John Krigbaum will investigate the development, spread, and impact of extensive religious rituals among Florida populations ca. A.D. 200 to 600 using a variety of analytical tools and archival research. The mortuary practices of this Middle Woodland period, referred to as "Weeden Island", show widespread and conspicuous uniformity that is characteristic of a religious movement. The proliferation of these practices was apparently coincident with increasingly integrated social networks and emergent high status for some individuals. Given these associations, the project examines the role of Weeden Island rituality in the initiation of emergent social inequality through investigation of human diet, mobility, social interaction, and community formation. In the context of conspicuous religious parity, this research endeavors to identify exactly how disparate communities interacted with one another, how integrated they were, and how these trends inflected social and political histories in the region. Drawing on collections and archived field notes from 13 Middle Woodland mound sites distributed across peninsular Florida and curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), this research will integrate (1) multiple lines of isotopic analysis of skeletal populations to generate data pertaining to diet and mobility, (2) osteological analysis to collect basic demographic and life history information on individual interments, (3) geochemical and petrographic analysis on Weeden Island mortuary wares to determine their ultimate provenance, and (4) technofunctional analysis to outline form and function of vessels and the potential for craft specialization. In addition, the uniformity of Weeden Island ritual practices will be evaluated through investigation of archived notes. These data and the correlation of variables will reveal specific historical trends in the practice and spread of Weeden Island rituality and its sociopolitical implications. The broader impacts of the study include contributions to archaeological method and social theory, the training of students, and public outreach and education. In terms of method, the analytical protocol builds on established techniques and combines them in innovative ways. These data lend a rare multidimensional robustness to the investigation of the complex region-wide phenomenon of Weeden Island, permitting more nuanced and potentially transformative understandings of the movement and life histories of Middle Woodland people and objects. At a theoretical level, through its focus on mobility and intergroup interactions, the project redirects the search for causes of social inequality toward a historical investigation of the process of community formation at regional scales, and has anthropological implications for explaining the intersections of religion, identity, and political conflict. The project provides advanced training and research experience for at least two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate museum and laboratory interns, and will form the basis for Ph.D. dissertations, and M.A. and honors theses. Results will be disseminated broadly and showcased through an Explore Research exhibit at the FLMNH and a companion website. In addition to scientific publications, archived data will be made freely available online.