Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Rise and Functioning of Status Hierarchies

约翰·沃尔登(匹兹堡大学)正在研究伯利兹下多佛市晚期经典(公元600-900)玛雅政体的崛起对周围当地精英家庭的影响。由于缺乏公开的政治权力，越来越多的学者认为经典玛雅尺子依靠仪式把追随者聚集在一起。在统治阶级缺乏影响臣民日常生活的有形力量的背景下，中间精英(介于最高尺子和普通民众之间的精英)往往在统治家族和他们的追随者之间扮演重要的调停人角色。通过确定三个自治的地方精英家族在被新兴的下多佛政体拉拢时，他们的相对财富和地位以及权力的礼仪和经济基础是如何变化的，沃尔登将展示合并是如何影响中级精英的机构的。地方精英是否在融入政体后失去了财富和地位，以及他们的权力基础？如果是这样的话，这将表明玛雅·尺子拥有高度的政治、经济和礼仪权力。相反，如果几乎没有明显的变化，或者被增选的中级精英看到他们的权力增加，那么这将证实目前的观点，即统治精英缺乏明确的政治权力。这种方法的基础是从人类学的角度看待外部势力对当地政治领导人的拉拢，因此为了解当代外交政策和纳入发展中世界提供了一个比较窗口。这项研究的结果将在沃尔登的论文和一系列学术出版物中公布。所有数据将通过匹兹堡大学比较考古中心免费提供。该项目将成为培训当地和国际学生进行考古实践的基础，并通过一系列外联活动、讲座和讲习班教育当地伯利兹人了解他们的过去。沃尔登将研究位于下多佛市政治首都周围的三个中级精英中心的变化；图图乌兹纳、花卉公园和巴顿苎麻，并包括每个中级精英中心周围普通社区的数据。了解客户普通人的财富和生活质量将表明，当地精英在与下属打交道时，是倾向于更具剥削性的策略，还是更有利于集体利益的策略，以及当下多佛市的尺子建立起来后，这种情况发生了怎样的变化。比较三个中级精英家族之间可能存在的差异，将有助于理解构成下多佛崛起后中级精英保留多少政治权力的不同因素。例如，地理上离下多佛市较近的地方精英是否看到他们的权力出现了更大幅度的下降，或者政治上更有权势的地方精英是否拥有更多机会来谈判他们在新政治中的角色？对住宅和仪式建筑的分析，以及这些结构中功利性、高价值和仪式项目比例的变化，将显示不平等、生产模式、消费和仪式活动如何随着政治玫瑰的变化而变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

John Walden (University of Pittsburgh) is investigating the ways in which the rise of the Late Classic (AD 600-900) Maya polity of Lower Dover, Belize impacted surrounding local elite families. Scholars have increasingly come to view Classic Maya rulers as being reliant on ceremony to bring followers together, due to a lack of overt political power. In contexts where the ruling classes lack the tangible power to affect the everyday lives of their subjects, intermediate elites (those between the highest rulers and the commoner masses) often fulfill important roles as mediators between the ruling family and their followers. By identifying how the relative wealth and status and ceremonial and economic bases of power of three autonomous local elite families changed as they became co-opted by the emergent Lower Dover polity, Walden will show how incorporation impacted the agency of intermediate elites. Did the local elites lose wealth and status, and their bases of power upon incorporation into a polity? If so, this would suggest Maya rulers wielded high degrees of political, economic and ceremonial power. Conversely, if little change is apparent or the co-opted intermediate elites witness an increase in their power, then this would corroborate current perspectives envisaging ruling elites as lacking explicit political power. The approach is grounded in an anthropological perspective on the co-option of local political leaders by external powers, and consequentially offers a comparative window into contemporary foreign policy and incorporation in the developing world. The results of the study will be made accessible in Walden's dissertation, and a series of academic publications. All data will be freely available through the University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology. The project will form the basis for training local and international students in archaeological practice and serve to educate local Belizeans about their past through a series of outreach events, lectures and workshops. Walden will examine changes at three intermediate elite centers situated around the political capital of Lower Dover; Tutu Uitz Na, Floral Park and Barton Ramie, and include data from the commoner neighborhoods which surrounded each intermediate elite center. Understanding the wealth and quality of life of client commoners will show whether local elites favored more exploitative or communally beneficial strategies in their dealings with their subordinates, and how this changed when the rulers of Lower Dover established themselves. Comparison of possible variability between the three intermediate elite families will allow an understanding of the different factors which structured how much political power intermediate elites retained following the rise of Lower Dover. For instance, did local elites located geographically closer to Lower Dover see a more dramatic reduction in their power, or did more politically powerful local elites possess greater opportunities for negotiating their role in the new polity? Analysis of residential and ceremonial architecture and the changing proportions of utilitarian, high value and ritual items within these structures will show how inequality, patterns of production, consumption and ritual activity changed as the polity rose.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.