Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Urbanization in Shaping Social Identity

城市化是一个变革的过程，不仅改变了人们居住的自然环境，也改变了他们的社会环境。城市中心将不同的群体和个人聚集在一起，为创新和冲突创造了机会。调查人们如何协商和管理这些互动对于理解意识形态和人口趋势是很重要的，这反过来又在政治、经济甚至艺术领域产生了级联效应。考古学对这些动态的观点可能特别有洞察力，因为它扩展了城市背景的类型，可以超越工业化，现代城市，以不同的时间，地理和历史尺度进行研究。研究人员将研究社区如何利用社会身份来协商城市的意识形态、政治和经济景观。大约83%的美国人口居住在城市地区；预计这一数字还会继续上升。这也是一个全球趋势。通过回顾过去，人们可以拓宽对在越来越多的背景下人们能够并且确实适应城市化的潜在方式的理解。这样的研究也有助于阐明不同的政治、经济和社会运动和政策如何影响人们的反应。这个项目将研究两种社会力量的影响，这两种力量已被证明是重要的全球身份驱动因素：宗教和亲属关系。研究人员将通过研究宗教表达和亲属关系的变化来研究城市化对社会认同和组织的影响。该研究将在中亚中西部的一系列中世纪（公元8 -13世纪）遗址上进行，特别关注乌兹别克斯坦的遗址。中世纪的中亚是一个十字路口，不同的思想和群体在不同的城市环境中聚集在一起。中世纪的中亚城市也受到国家支持的伊斯兰教传播和植根于血缘关系的强烈地方认同的影响。这些复杂的意识形态层在中亚城市的相遇，使它们成为探索不同城市经验的富有成效的背景，面对自上而下和自下而上的身份。在本研究中，宗教的影响将通过埋葬实践来检验，而地方亲属身份将通过个体之间的生物亲缘关系水平来评估。埋葬实践将通过描述坟墓的位置、结构和尸体的处理来研究。个体之间的生物学亲缘关系将通过量化每个地点的人类颅骨形态学差异来测量。数据将从中世纪高地墓地的挖掘中收集，以及从博物馆收藏的骨骼遗骸和挖掘报告中收集。除了直接的学术贡献外，该项目还将促进国际合作。研究人员将与美国和乌兹别克斯坦的考古学家以及研究生一起进行挖掘和数据收集。这项工作将包括培训学生，提供出版和演讲的机会，以及在乌兹别克斯坦合作机构建立实验室，从而提供持续的研究机会。国际合作至关重要，不仅可以汇集不同的知识，而且可以在社会和经济领域建立国家之间的桥梁。

Urbanism is a transformative process, altering not only the physical surroundings that people inhabit, but also their social environment. Urban centers bring together diverse groups and individuals, creating opportunities for both innovation and conflict. Investigating how people negotiate and manage these interactions is important to understanding ideological and demographic trends, which in turn have cascading effects in political, economic, and even artistic realms. An archaeological perspective on these dynamics can be particularly insightful as it expands the types of urban contexts that can be examined beyond industrialized, modern cities, to diverse chronological, geographic, and historical scales. Researchers will examine how communities use social identity to negotiate urban ideological, political, and economic landscapes. Approximately 83% of the United States population lives in urban areas; and this number is projected to continue to rise. This is a global trend as well. By examining the past, one can broaden understanding of the potential ways people can and do adapt to urbanism in a growing range of contexts. Such research also helps illuminate how different political, economic, and social movements and policies may impact people's reactions. This project will examine the impact of two social forces that have been shown to be important global drivers of identity: religion and kinship. The researchers will examine urbanism's impact on social identity and organization through a study of variability in religious expression and kinship. The research will be conducted on a series of medieval (8th-13th cent. CE) sites across western-central Central Asia, especially focusing on sites in Uzbekistan. Medieval Central Asia was a crossroads for diverse ideas and groups that came together in a range of urban contexts. Medieval Central Asian cities were also shaped by state sponsored spread of Islam and strong local identities rooted in kinship. The meeting of these complex layers of ideology in Central Asian cities makes them a productive context for exploring diverse urban experiences in the face of both top-down and bottom-up identities. In this research, the impact of religion will be examined through burial practice, while local kinship identities will be evaluated through levels of biological relatedness between individuals. Burial practice will be studied through descriptions of grave locations, structures, and treatment of bodies. Biological relatedness between individuals will be measured by quantifying morphological differences in human crania from each site. Data will be collected from excavations of a highland medieval cemetery, as well as from museum collections of skeletal remains and excavation reports. Beyond direct academic contributions, this project will promote international collaboration. The researchers will work with American and Uzbek archaeologists and graduate students to conduct excavations and data collection. This work will include training students, publication and presenting opportunities, and the establishment of labs in collaborating Uzbek institutes, allowing for sustained research opportunities. International collaboration is crucial not only to bring together diverse knowledge sets, but also to build bridges between countries in social and economic realms.