Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Visible Markers of Group Affiliation and Social Position

在这个博士论文奖本杰明Bellorado从亚利桑那大学的研究生，在罗纳德托纳博士的监督下工作，将收集他的博士论文的数据。因此，除了由此产生的知识外，这笔赠款还将有助于促进有前途的年轻科学家的智力发展和职业轨迹。该项目利用长期考古数据，研究了个体基于可见符号发出群体归属和群体内地位信号的微妙方式。这项研究采用了一个来自史前美国西南部的考古学例子，研究了符号使用随时间的变化，并将其与社会组织发生的巨大变化联系起来。虽然在当今的背景下，珠宝或头巾等符号可能反映了群体归属，但这种考古学分析提供了一个机会，可以检查以世纪为单位的时间跨度的变化。这项研究将特别感兴趣的西南美洲原住民，因为它提供了深入了解部落历史。使用祖先普韦布洛地区在10至13世纪的案例研究，本研究将考虑复杂的方式改变了他们的物质世界的不同方面的可见性，随着时间的推移，沟通有关边界，群体包容性和社会身份的重要信息。它还探讨了在宗教和政治层面发生重大文化变革的时代，在多个层面上更广泛的适应和认同问题，提供了与查科制度及其重组有关的社会破坏和改革的新信息。博物馆藏品将进行研究，以测量和拍摄凉鞋，获取AMS（加速器质谱）测年的样本，并从先前描述和计时文件中收集数据，这些文件包括建筑壁画和描绘凉鞋的岩石艺术。有了这些数据，就有可能构建一个紧密的时间顺序，以确定在动荡的查科和后查科时代，凉鞋的设计风格是如何被操纵的，以表明不同规模和组织结构的群体中的成员关系。

In this doctoral dissertation award Benjamin Bellorado a graduate student from the University of Arizona, working under the supervision of Dr. Ronald Towner, will collect data for his PhD dissertation. Thus, in addition to the resultant knowledge this grant will serve to further the intellectual development and career trajectory of a promising young scientist. Using long term archaeological data the project investigates the often subtle ways in which individuals signal group affiliation as well as within group status based on visible symbols. The research employs an archaeological example drawn from the prehistoric US Southwest to examine variation in symbol usage over time and correlate it with dramatic changes which occurred in social organization. While it is clear within a present day context that symbols such as jewelry or head covering may reflect group affiliation, this archaeological analysis offers the opportunity to examine variation over time spans measured in centuries. This study will be of particular interest to Southwest Native Americans as it provides insight into tribal history. Using the Ancestral Pueblo region during the tenth through thirteenth centuries as a case study, this research will considers the complex ways groups transformed the visibility of different aspects of their material world to communicate important messages about boundaries, group inclusiveness, and social identities over time. It also addresses much broader issues of adaptation and identity in times of great cultural changes on religious and political levels at multiple scales, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation associated with the Chaco system and its reorganization. Museum collections will be studied to measure and photograph sandals, acquire samples for AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating, and compile data from prior descriptive and chronometric documentation of building murals and rock art depicting sandals. With these data it will be possible to construct a tight chronological sequence to determine how sandal design styles were manipulated to signal membership within groups of different scales and organizational structures during the turbulent Chaco and post-Chaco eras.