Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Development Of Hierarchical Status Systems

研究人员力求了解导致当今世界大多数人口生活的非常复杂的大规模社会的过程，以及将其成员联系在一起并促进持续发展的因素。考古学是唯一能够研究复杂社会起源的学科，因为它们的起源发生在很久以前，远远超出了书面历史的范围。最早的复杂社会发展所遵循的道路是多种多样的，它们导致了具有高度多样特征的复杂社会组织形式。在许多情况下，有明显的考古证据表明，永久性的领导机构的出现，是由雄心勃勃的个人追求自己的目标和目的而形成的。当这些有抱负的领导人调动资源以促进他们的利益时，他们越来越多地组成了一个精英群体，在一个或多个方面与大多数人口不同，包括财富的积累，更高的生活水平，声望，权力，军事权威，仪式角色和其他社会特征。这些精英群体的经济基础可以用各种方式获得的资源来构建。可以通过建立水供应调节系统和保护作物免受干旱或洪水的影响来加强农业生产。控制当地无法获得的材料的进口可能会加强特权精英的地位。促进当地手工艺生产和交流也可以为精英阶层提供实现政治抱负的收入来源。如果与邻国社会的冲突是普遍存在的，精英可以巩固自己的领导地位，通过组织进攻或防御军事activity.This研究项目的目的是文件所追求的战略，在卡萨纳雷地区的奥里诺科河流域在Llanos区在哥伦比亚的安第斯山脉脚下的新兴精英。整体环境背景以及最初的考古学信息表明，高地系统中的集约农业是这些精英的主要资源来源，就像在利亚诺斯的其他地方一样。然而，附近高度发达的穆伊斯卡酋长的存在为卡萨纳雷精英提供了特别的机会，使他们能够专注于专业化生产和中距离交流-这些机会是利亚诺斯其他地区的新兴精英所没有的。最初，战争在卡萨纳雷似乎没有其他地方那么普遍。研究人员将验证或纠正这些最初的印象，并确定这些新兴精英的不同机会对卡萨纳雷地区最初复杂社会组织发展的性质和时间产生了什么影响。当地文化和教育团体将是重要的合作者，促进获得基本的环境信息;该项目反过来将提供有关该地区早期社会考古遗迹的数据，以帮助遗产保护工作。本地学生亦会参与实地及实验室工作，获得第一手的科研经验。它还将促进共同首席研究员Juan卡洛斯Vargas Ruiz先生的学术和智力发展，他将主持该项目，作为其博士论文工作的一部分。

Researchers seek understanding of the processes that led to the very complex, large-scale societies in which most of the world's population now lives, and of the factors that bound their members together and fostered continued development. Archaeology is uniquely able to study the origins of complex societies because their beginnings occurred far back in time, well beyond the reach of written history. The pathways followed in the development of the earliest complex societies were diverse, and they led to forms of complex social organization with highly varied characteristics. In many instances there is conspicuous archaeological evidence of the emergence of permanent institutions of leadership, forged by ambitious individuals pursuing their own aims and objectives. As these aspiring leaders marshaled resources to further their interests, they increasingly comprised an elite group set off from the majority of the population in one or more ways, including the accumulation of wealth, higher standards of living, prestige, power, military authority, ritual roles, and other social characteristics. The economic foundations of these elite groups could be constructed with resources obtained in a variety of ways. Agricultural production could be intensified by constructing systems to regulate water supplies and protect crops from drought or flooding. Control of the importation of materials not available locally could reinforce a privileged elite position. Fostering local craft production and exchange could also provide elites with a source of income with which to pursue their political ambitions. If conflict with neighboring societies were prevalent, elites could solidify their positions of leadership by organizing either offensive or defensive military activities.This research project aims to document the strategies pursued by emerging elites in the Casanare region of the Orinoco drainage in the Llanos zone at the foot of the Andes of Colombia. The overall environmental setting, as well as initial archaeological information, suggest that intensive agriculture in raised field systems was a major source of resources for these elites, as it was elsewhere in the Llanos. The presence of nearby highly developed Muisca chiefdoms, however, provided Casanare elites with particular opportunities for focusing on specialized production and medium-distance exchange--opportunities that were not available to emerging elites in other parts of the Llanos. Warfare appears, initially, to have been less prevalent in Casanare than it was elsewhere. The researchers will verify or correct these initial impressions and determine what impact these different opportunities for emerging elites had on the nature and timing of the development of initial complex social organization in the Casanare region. Local cultural and educational groups will be important collaborators, facilitating access to essential environmental information; the project will in turn contribute data on the archaeological remains of early societies in the region to aid in heritage preservation efforts. Local students will also participate in the field and laboratory work, gaining first-hand experience of scientific research. It will also further the academic and intellectual development of Mr. Juan Carlos Vargas Ruiz the co-Principal Investigator who will conduct the project as part of his doctoral dissertation work.