Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Use of Material Culture to Trace Historic Change

这个项目将通过对陶瓷的研究来调查巴拿马的殖民历史。这项研究的灵感来自于后殖民时期的辩论，这些辩论在殖民经历的结构中引入了代理和谈判的概念。在帝国扩张的过程中，美洲、亚洲和欧洲的财富在这一地区流动，这使当地的殖民谈判进程黯然失色。因此，非欧洲人在巴拿马殖民地的考古叙述中仍然缺乏历史能动性。先前的考古研究强调了本土陶瓷风格从考古记录中消失，并被欧洲和克里奥尔风格所取代。这一证据被用来证实西班牙人占领地区的土著群体灭绝或同化。然而，鉴于后殖民时期的辩论，前面的发言提出了关于技术变革进程以及政治和经济变量在殖民时期巴拿马的作用的问题。当地社区是否控制陶瓷生产的某些方面？西班牙人是否在陶瓷技术生产中运用了当地的知识和资源？对技术的研究是了解殖民影响的一个窗口，这是通过文献资料无法获得的。这项研究将补充和多样化西班牙历史及其叙事的精英视角，包括当地和非欧洲社区参与殖民巴拿马的建设。基于历史、考古和考古研究的结合，MS. Navas将在Rodríguez-Alegría博士的指导下研究本土陶瓷的生产和消费，作为她在德克萨斯大学博士论文研究的一部分。她将关注欧洲殖民后陶瓷生产和消费可能的连续性、转型或中断。研究人员旨在确定前哥伦布时期和殖民时期陶瓷生产中使用的原材料和技术。她的研究将集中在之前从三个不同的西班牙殖民定居点（Nata de los Caballeros, Old Panama （Panama Viejo）和Panama Historic District (Casco Antiguo)）挖掘的陶瓷样品的糊状物、滑片和釉料的成分分析上。从这三个地点收集的样品将允许对从陶瓷晚期（公元700年至征服时期）到19世纪的不同生产中心的陶瓷技术和成分的长期变化进行区域比较研究。样品的分析将基于中子活化分析（NAA）、岩石薄片分析和激光烧蚀-电感耦合等离子体质谱分析（LA-ICP-MS）。这些技术将允许识别用于陶瓷生产的主要原材料和技术，以及在殖民时期使用的连续性或变化模式。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the colonial history of Panama through the study of ceramics. The research is inspired by postcolonial debates that introduced notions of agency and negotiation in the structuration of colonial experiences. Local processes of colonial negotiations have been overshadowed by the splendor of the American, Asian, and European riches circulating through this region during the expansion of the imperial enterprise. As a result, non-European people still lack historical agency in the archaeological narratives of colonial Panama. Previous archaeological research highlights the disappearance of indigenous ceramic styles from the archaeological record and their replacement by European and creole styles. This evidence is used to affirm the extinction or assimilation of indigenous groups located in the areas the Spaniards occupied. However, in light of postcolonial debates, the previous statement raises questions about the process of technological change and the role of political and economic variables in colonial Panama. Did local communities keep control of some aspects of ceramic production? Did the Spanish appropriate local knowledge and resources in the production of ceramic technologies? The study of technology is a window to understand the impacts of colonization not accessible through documentary sources. This research will supplement and diversify the elite perspective of Spanish history and its narratives to include the participation of local and non-European communities in the construction of colonial Panama. Based on a combination of historical, archaeological, and archaeometric research, MS. Navas will study indigenous production and consumption of ceramics under the supervision of Dr. Rodríguez-Alegría, as part of her doctoral dissertation research at the University of Texas. She will focus on the possible continuity, transformation or disruption of ceramic production and consumption after European colonization. The researcher aims to identify raw materials and technologies used in the production of ceramics in the pre-Columbian and colonial periods. Her study will be centered on compositional analyses of pastes, slips, and glazes of ceramic samples collected in previous excavations from three different Spanish colonial settlements: Nata de los Caballeros, Old Panama (Panama Viejo), and the Panama Historic District (Casco Antiguo). The inclusion of samples from these three sites will allow a regional comparative study of technological and compositional changes in ceramics from different production centers over the long term, starting in the Late Ceramic period (700 AD to conquest) to the nineteenth century. The analyses of the samples will be based on neutron activation analysis (NAA), petrographic thin section analysis, and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). These techniques will permit the identification of the constituent raw materials and techniques used in the production of ceramics and patterns of continuity or change in their use during the colonial period.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.