Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: A Cross Cultural Comparison Of Risk And Adaptation Strategies

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Alicia Odewale女士将进行考古研究，以检查新世界多个地区与新世界奴隶相关的自然和社会挑战。除了考古调查困扰这些社区的风险外，研究人员还将比较每个被奴役社区为减轻其环境中的社会和自然灾害所采取的策略。这项比较研究采用了一种混合方法，将奴隶叙述和原始叙述的使用与从生活在环境不同地区的奴隶的前住宅空间中恢复的考古证据结合起来。这项研究超越了目前的非洲散居学者，突出了为社会最精英阶层服务的被奴役人民的经历，并揭示了散居在城市岛屿和农村内陆地区的被奴役人民主要关注的具体环境挑战，并比较了不同被奴役社区用于克服挑战的文化适应范围。当前的项目与全球风险易发社区仍然相关，因为某些边缘化或土著文化继续受到其无法控制的外部力量的威胁。调查过去使用不同战略减少外部力量影响的情况，将为今后如何更好地保护边缘化人民提供新的指导。Alicia Odewale和她的团队将在圣克罗伊克里斯蒂安斯特国家历史遗址内的丹麦西印度和几内亚公司仓库周围进行新的考古调查，并将这些新发现的文物与弗吉尼亚州蒙彼利埃种植园考古部门已经处理的大量材料进行比较。调查人员将根据西印度群岛和弗吉尼亚州被奴役人民的第一手资料，确定每个地区被奴役社区最关心的主要风险，并对其进行排名。在每个遗址发现的四种对风险敏感的文物类别包括：动物遗骸、金属器皿、陶瓷和贸易商品，然后将用于确定对每个地区被奴役社区构成最大威胁的挑战的可能的文化反应。本研究的中心问题是，在种植园时代晚期，这些遗址中哪一个对被奴役的人来说是一个更危险的环境。研究人员假设，圣克罗伊岛的皇家奴隶劳工所处的加勒比城市环境中的社会和自然灾害，将比弗吉尼亚州总统奴隶劳工所处的战前农村种植园环境对奴隶社区构成更大的威胁。将被奴役人民的书面文字与考古证据相结合，将为非洲侨民的多样性经历提供更全面的研究，并为考古学家、学生和后裔社区提供一个更具包容性的环境。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Ms Alicia Odewale will conduct archaeological research to examine the natural and social challenges associated with New World slaves in multiple regions within the New World. In addition to archaeologically investigating the risks plaguing these communities, the researchers will also compare the strategies each enslaved community employed to mitigate both social and natural hazards in their environment. This comparative study uses a mixed methods approach, combining the use of slave narratives and primary accounts with archaeological evidence recovered from the former residential spaces of enslaved peoples living in environmentally distinct regions. This research goes beyond current African Diaspora scholarship to highlight the experiences of enslaved peoples serving the most elite factions of society, as well as uncovering those specific environmental challenges of primary concern to enslaved peoples living within urban insular and rural landlocked regions across the Diaspora, and compares the range of cultural adaptations different enslaved communities used to overcome the challenges they faced. The current project remains relevant for risk prone communities across the globe, as certain marginalized or indigenous cultures continue to be threatened by external forces beyond their control. Investigating the use of different strategies to diminish the effects of external forces in the past will present new directives in how to better protect marginalized peoples in the future. Alicia Odewale and her team will conduct new archaeological investigations around the Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse inside the Christiansted National Historic Site in St. Croix, and compare these newly recovered artifacts to the extensive material already being processed by the Archaeology Department at the Montpelier Plantation Estate in Virginia. The investigators will identify and rank the primary risks of most concern to the enslaved community in each region from first-hand accounts of enslaved peoples in the West Indies and Virginia. Four types of risk sensitive artifact classes including: faunal remains, metal wares, ceramics and trade goods found at each site will then be used to identify the possible cultural responses to those challenges that presented the greatest threats to the enslaved community in each region. The central question of this study asks which of these sites presents a riskier environment for enslaved peoples during the late plantation era. The investigators hypothesize that the social and natural hazards present in the urban Caribbean environment for the royal enslaved laborers in St. Croix will pose a greater threat to the enslaved community than the rural antebellum plantation environment belonging to the presidential enslaved laborers in Virginia. Combining the written words of enslaved peoples with archaeological evidence will create a more informed study of the diversity of experiences that existed across the African Diaspora and provide a more inclusive environment for archaeologists, students and descendant communities to work together.