Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: An Investigation of Long Term Culture Contact and Accommodation

这项研究的目的是了解社区如何适应新的宗教影响，这如何融入传统的现存世界观，以及这一过程的物质表现。这一问题在当今世界具有核心意义，因为缺乏成功的一体化是世界许多区域冲突的核心。通过对西班牙殖民统治前的西班牙裔新世界文化接触基督教的殖民过程的研究，可以考察多宗教在很长一段时间内的相互作用。在稻方武博士的指导下，维克托·卡斯蒂略先生将在Chiantla Viejo进行考古调查，这是一个小的玛雅高地定居点，在16世纪过渡到西班牙的殖民统治。为了解决殖民环境中社区生存的机制，卡斯蒂略的研究将研究当地社区继续使用广场进行公共聚集和大规模仪式是如何为外部创新和传统仪式实践之间的谈判留下空间的。结合对遗址布局的分析、有针对性的挖掘和实验室分析，该项目将提供一个实质性的数据集，以评估文化变革作为当地小社区关键过渡时期的政治成果的层面。卡斯蒂略·S的著作将通过研究殖民主义框架内更复杂和本地化的文化互动场景，为解决传统的文化适应和融合模式之外的宗教变革提供新的基础。Chiantla Viejo的调查还与遗址周围的现代社区进行了建设性的对话，因为这里是现代城镇Chiantla的祖先所在地，因此提高了人们对保护和保存当地考古遗产的认识。最终，这部作品将呈现一个更近距离和更具地方性的描述，讲述玛雅原住民群体如何应对殖民影响，以及前西班牙裔社区如何成功过渡到殖民生活，甚至超过西班牙人的统治，一直持续到现代。

The goal of this research is to understand how communities adapt to exposure to a new religious influence, how this is incorporated into a traditional extant world view and the material manifestations of this process. This issue is of central importance in the world today as lack of successful integration lies at the heart of conflicts in many regions of the world. Through the examination of the colonial process in which pre-hispanic New World cultures were exposed to Christianity through Spanish colonization it is possible to examine multi-religion interaction over extended periods of time.Under the direction of Dr. Takeshi Inomata, Mr. Victor Castillo will conduct archaeological investigations at Chiantla Viejo, a small highland Maya settlement that transitioned to Spanish colonial rule during the 16th century. In order to address the mechanism of community survival in colonial settings, Castillo's research will study how the continued use of the plaza by the local community for public concentrations and massive rituals left room for negotiation between external innovations and traditional ritual practices. Combining the analysis of site layout, targeted excavations, and laboratory analyses, this project will provide a substantive dataset to evaluate the dimension of culture change as a political outcome during a critical transitional period for small local communities. Castillo´s work will provide new grounds for addressing religious change beyond traditional models of acculturation and syncretism by studying a more complex and localized scenario of cultural interactions within the framework of colonialism. The investigations at Chiantla Viejo also integrates a constructive dialogue with the modern community surrounding the site since the place is treasured as the ancestral location of the modern town of Chiantla, thus raising awareness about the protection and preservation of the local archaeological patrimony. Ultimately, this work will present a more proximate and locally situated account of the ways in which native Maya groups responded to the colonial impact and how pre-Hispanic communities managed to transition successfully to colonial life and even outlasted the Spanish domination up to modern times.