Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Alternate Models of Community Formation

在露丝·范·戴克博士的指导下，凯拉姆·斯罗莫顿(宾厄姆顿大学)将进行研究，评估人口流动在政治复杂性发展中的作用。人类学家长期以来一直对大规模、政治复杂的社会的起源感兴趣。一些模型暗示，当社会寻求更有效的生存、劳动组织或交换模式时，政治复杂性就会出现。其他人则强调历史偶然性在政治复杂性发展中的作用，侧重于不同群体在人口流动或社会转型期间如何谈判权力关系。这场辩论对当代社会有着广泛的影响，因为这些模型对人类代理人创造变化的能力提供了根本不同的特征。此外，对这一主题的考古研究可以通过阐明替代的政治组织模式和挑战关于人类社会中权力、政治和人口流动的性质的理所当然的假设来为当今提供信息。最后，与许多其他学科不同，考古学研究政治关系的空间组成部分，因为复杂社会出现的证据通常被刻在景观上，作为聚落组织中的不朽结构和模式。这些景观受到发展和人类持续居住的影响。因此，对政治景观的考古调查也是记录和保存过去政治谈判的重要记录的有力手段。此外，该项目将吸引广泛的利益攸关方参与，这些利益攸关方正在努力保护大查科景观的各个方面，包括部落团体和联邦机构。这项研究将展示考古学理论和方法如何为景观保护和发展规划的更广泛目标做出贡献。范·戴克和斯罗莫顿将以前列国查科人社会为例进行研究。查科是一个政治复杂的普韦布洛祖先社会，在公元840-1140年间繁荣于现在的新墨西哥州、科罗拉多州、犹他州和亚利桑那州的部分地区，但它的起源尚不清楚。一些考古学家认为，查科社会在很大程度上是在原地出现的，而另一些人则认为，从北部进入该地区的大规模移民导致了查科政治复杂性的发展。研究人员将使用地球物理测量、遥感和建筑文献来制作两个查科社区的地表和地下考古的高质量、准确的可视化。他们将分析陶瓷和石头文物，以了解社区中的物质文化使用情况，这对于描述家庭之间的政治关系非常重要。使用这些数据，范·戴克博士和斯罗莫顿先生将确定新墨西哥州查科社区是如何形成的--是原地生长的结果，还是移民的结果？这一结果将回答查科考古学目前的一场争论，但也将更广泛地为古代政治组织的人类学模型提供参考。

Under the direction of Dr. Ruth Van Dyke, Kellam Throgmorton (Binghamton University) will undertake research that evaluates the role of population movement in the development of political complexity. Anthropologists have long been interested in the origins of large-scale, politically complex societies. Some models imply that political complexity arises when societies seek more efficient modes of subsistence, labor organization, or exchange. Others highlight the role of historical contingencies in the development of political complexity, focusing on how different groups negotiate power relationships during periods of population movement or social transformation. The debate has broad implications for contemporary society, as these models offer fundamentally different characterizations of the capacity for human agents to create change. Furthermore, archaeological research on this topic can inform the present by illuminating alternative modes of political organization and by challenging taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of power, politics, and population movement in human societies. Finally, unlike many other disciplines, archaeology investigates the spatial components of political relations, since evidence for the emergence of complex societies is often inscribed on the landscape as monumental structures and patterns in settlement organization. These landscapes are affected by development and continued human habitation. As a consequence, archaeological investigation of political landscapes also serves as a potent means of documenting and preserving critical records of past political negotiation. In addition, the project will engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders that are working to preserve aspects of the greater Chacoan landscape, including tribal groups and federal agencies. The research will demonstrate how archaeological theory and method can contribute to broader goals of landscape preservation and development planning.Dr. Van Dyke and Mr. Throgmorton will use precolumbian Chacoan society as a case study. Chaco was a politically complex Ancestral Pueblo society that flourished in what are now parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona between A.D. 840-1140, but its origins are murky. Some archaeologists suggest that Chacoan society arose largely in situ, while others argue that large-scale migration into the area from the north contributed to the development of Chacoan political complexity. The researchers will use geophysical survey, remote sensing, and architectural documentation to produce high-quality, accurate visualizations of the surface and subsurface archaeology of two Chacoan communities. They will analyze ceramic and stone artifacts to understand material culture usage across the communities, which is important for characterizing political relationships between households. Using these data Dr. Van Dyke and Mr. Throgmorton will determine how early Chacoan communities in New Mexico formed - as a result of in situ growth or due to immigration? The results will answer a current debate in Chacoan archaeology, but will also more broadly inform anthropological models on political organization in the ancient past.