Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Rural Land Use Practice In Response To Political Change

博士来自印第安纳州大学的候选人Alex Elvis Badillo将记录墨西哥瓦哈卡Quiechapa山区农村地区人类改造和使用土地方式的长期变化。这项研究的主要目标是确定邻近城市地区的政治和经济变革和冲突如何影响瓦哈卡南部的农村土地利用，并确定在大规模变化时期哪些土地利用战略被证明是最有效的。虽然复杂城市地区的政治动荡往往对当地人口、粮食安全和土地使用产生明显和可衡量的影响，但人们也应该预料到农村土地会发生变化。过去和现在都是如此。作为这项研究的结果，Badillo将确定人们在面临大规模社会政治变化时，在农村地区对农业、定居点和土地使用所做的决定。基查帕距离后古典贸易和征服路线上的两个重要停靠点等距离，是研究更广泛的政治动荡对农村地区影响的主要地点。在基查帕收集的农村土地使用数据将补充瓦哈卡40多年的区域调查研究，为分析城市/农村土地使用动态提供更广泛的背景。考古学是唯一有资格贡献有关土地使用变化的长期数据，这是至关重要的历史轨迹，导致目前的全球局势。这项考古研究将促进对农村土地利用变化及其与人口、经济、技术、政治和环境关系的理论理解。为了了解瓦哈卡南部更广泛的社会政治和经济变化如何影响基查帕的土地利用，巴迪略将解决以下问题：（1）人类土地改造发生在何时何地？(2)基查帕人用什么方法改变了他们的地貌？(3)生活在基查帕的人们是如何与更广泛的区域间政治和交流网络联系在一起的？将通过区域行人定居点调查收集数据，调查小组将在168平方公里的研究区域内行走，使用高精度全球定位系统记录土地使用和定居的所有证据。 将把与土地使用证据有关的观测数据和地表人工制品取样地点编入地理信息系统数据库的共同平台，以供分析。地表文物和土地利用变化的数据，如梯田，水管理功能和住宅建筑，结合其他环境数据集，将允许Badillo检测从古典时期（公元200 - 800）到后古典时期（公元800 - 1521）的土地利用和定居变化。 Badillo将让Quiechapa的公民参与他们自己的历史和遗产的研究，同时通过考古学的实践教授科学原理。此外，还将与地方土地当局合作，收集关于基查帕当地景观过去如何被改造和利用的信息，并将用于目前的农业集约化工作。

Ph.D. candidate Alex Elvis Badillo of Indiana University will document long-term changes in the ways humans modify and use land in the mountainous rural region of Quiechapa, Oaxaca, Mexico. The major goal of the research is to determine how political and economic transformations and conflict in neighboring urban areas affected rural land-use in southern Oaxaca and to determine which land-use strategies proved most effective during times of large-scale change. While political unrest in complex urban areas often has visible and measurable effects on local demography, food security, and land-use, one should also expect that rural hinterlands experience change. This is true in both the past and the present. As a result of this research, Badillo will determine the kinds of decisions people made regarding agriculture, settlement, and land-use in rural areas when confronted with large-scale sociopolitical shifts. Quiechapa, which lies equidistant from two important stopping points on routes of Postclassic trade and conquest, is a prime location to study the effects of wider political unrest on rural regions. Rural land-use data collected in Quiechapa will complement over 40 years of regional survey research in Oaxaca in providing a broader context within which to analyze urban/rural land-use dynamics. Archaeology is uniquely qualified to contribute data pertaining to land-use change over the long term, which is vital to understanding the historical trajectories that have led to current global situations. This archaeological study will advance theoretical understandings about rural land-use change and its relationship to demography, economy, technology, politics, and the environment.To understand how broader sociopolitical and economic changes in southern Oaxaca affected land-use in Quiechapa, Badillo will address the following questions: (1) Where and when did anthropogenic land modification occur?; (2) In what ways did the people of Quiechapa modify their landscape?; (3) How were the people living in Quiechapa connected to the broader interregional politics and exchange networks? Data will be collected through a regional pedestrian settlement survey in which the survey team will walk the 168 square kilometers study region recording all evidence of land-use and settlement using a high precision global positioning system (GPS). Observational data and surface artifact sample locations associated with evidence of land-use will be organized into the common platform of a geographic information system (GIS) database for analysis. Surface artifacts and data on land-use modifications such as terracing, water management features, and residential architecture, in combination with other environmental datasets, will allow Badillo to detect changes in land-use and settlement from the Classic (A.D. 200 - 800) to the Postclassic Period (A.D. 800 - 1521). Badillo will involve citizens of Quiechapa in the research of their own history and heritage, while also teaching scientific principles through the practice of archaeology. Moreover, information about how Quiechapa's local landscape has been modified and used in the past will be collected in collaboration with local land authorities and will be used in current agricultural intensification efforts.