Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Regional Interaction as World-System Incorporation in Classic Period Mesoamerica

研究人员试图了解大国和小政体之间的互动如何影响地方和区域层面上的小政体人口。随着全球相互联系的增加和世界经济体系的持续发展，这些体系对当地人口的积极和消极影响已成为日益重要的研究重点。考古学特别适合研究过去类似的相互作用过程，因此可以为现在的经济和政治扩张提供信息。在古代中美洲的古典时期（公元300-900年），大城市特奥蒂瓦坎（位于今天的墨西哥城附近）与许多其他地区进行了各种形式的接触。互动的形式包括贸易、征服和文化传播。该项目将侧重于与特奥蒂瓦坎互动的一个地点，即墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯州南部的Sierra de los Tuxtlas地区。它将讨论特奥蒂瓦坎对该区域当地人口的影响，并评估这种影响改变区域社会和经济制度的方式。本研究将有助于对经济扩张的一般性研究，并从地方的角度探讨由外国引起的地区经济变化，具有广泛的适用性。这项研究将由亚利桑那州州立大学博士生内森·D。威尔逊博士的指导下，迈克尔E。史密斯该项目的数据将作为Wilson先生博士论文的基础，这项研究探讨了周边融入更大系统的问题以及这一过程如何在区域范围内表现出来。它实现了一个世界系统框架，量化核心附属人口和谈判外围之间的相互作用。为了评估这一点，它将研究墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯州南部的西部图斯特拉斯地区（WTR）的进口商品的周边消费。通过多线的证据，本研究将确定两个WTR的政治，连接到一个侵入性的中心（马塔卡潘）显示的文化隶属于墨西哥高原首都特奥蒂瓦坎的区域经济影响。该地区以前的研究集中在与马塔卡潘相关的特定陶器类型的集约化生产和区域内插分布。该项目将建立在以前的研究基础上：（1）更有效地量化这些产品在两个相邻政体中的消费，（2）评估其他马塔卡帕生产的商品的分布和消费。在这样做的时候，它将构建一个区域，历时的观点，通过这两个土著政体（和不同的人口在一个政体）纳入特奥蒂瓦坎世界系统通过与马塔卡潘互动的不同方式。拟议的研究是面向分析方法（例如，这些技术包括属性分析、仪器中子活化分析[INAA]和岩相学），以帮助区分古典时期早期和中期的背景，评估黑曜石视觉来源的准确性，并将当地实用的陶器类型与进口版本区分开来。将在墨西哥从以前挖掘的材料中挑选样品，而样品制备和化学及矿物学分析将由美国的实验室完成。

Researchers seek to understand how interaction between large states and small polities impacts populations of said small polities at the local and regional level. With increased global interconnectedness and the continued development of world-wide economic systems, the impacts of these systems on local populations, both positive and negative, have become an increasingly important focus of study. Archaeology is particularly well-suited to examine similar processes of interaction in the past and can therefore inform on these processes of economic and political expansion in the present. In the Classic Period (AD 300-900) of ancient Mesoamerica, the large city of Teotihuacan (located near present-day Mexico City), engaged in various forms of contact with many other regions. Forms of interaction included trade, conquest, and cultural dissemination. This project will focus on one location of interaction with Teotihuacan, the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Region of Southern Veracruz, Mexico. It will address the impacts of Teotihuacan influence on local populations in the region and assess the ways in which this influence altered regional social and economic systems. In doing so, this project will contribute to the general study of economic expansion and implements an approach to examine foreign-induced regional economic change from the local perspective, which can be applied broadly. This research will be conducted by Arizona State University doctoral student Nathan D. Wilson, under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Smith. Data from this project will serve as the basis for Mr. Wilson's doctoral dissertation.This research addresses the issue of peripheral incorporation into larger systems and how this process is manifest regionally. It implements a world-systems framework in quantifying interaction between core-affiliated populations and a negotiated periphery. To evaluate this, it will study peripheral consumption of imported goods in the Western Tuxtlas Region (WTR) of southern Veracruz, Mexico. Through multiple lines of evidence, this research will ascertain the regional economic effects for two WTR polities that were connected to an intrusive center (Matacapan) displaying cultural affiliation to the Mexican highland capital of Teotihuacan. Prior research in the region has focused on intensive production and regional, interpolity distribution of specific pottery types associated with Matacapan. This project will build upon this previous research by: (1) more effectively quantifying consumption of these products in two neighboring polities and (2) assessing distribution and consumption of other Matacapan-produced goods. In doing so, it will construct a regional, diachronic view of the different ways through which these two indigenous polities (and different populations within one of the polities) incorporated into a Teotihuacan world-system via interaction with Matacapan. The proposed research is geared toward analytical methods (e.g., attribute analysis, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis [INAA], and petrography) to help differentiate between Early and Middle Classic Period contexts, assess the accuracy of visual sourcing of obsidian, and separate local utilitarian pottery types from imported versions. Sample selection from previously excavated materials will be done in Mexico, while sample preparation and chemical and mineralogical analyses will be completed by laboratories in the United States.