Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Origin of Multiethnic Communities

这项研究涉及多民族共存的发展，以及过去社会如何有效地整理和维持社会多元化的背景。在当今全球化的世界中，许多城市和社区都是充满活力的多种族社区，但社会多样化的社区在很大程度上被认为是大型、组织良好的社会的事实。然而，有足够的证据表明，在较小、集中度较低的社会中存在多族裔多样性的情况，可以挑战这种关系，并质疑不同政治复杂程度的群体如何能够有效地谈判多民族共存。考古学特别适合于研究多民族社会的长期发展，它们是如何排列的，以及使用了什么样的机构来缓解经常困扰种族间关系的分裂和破坏性力量。特别是，通过收集国家控制暂停或全面展开的时期的数据，这项研究将提供关于多种族在各种政治背景下的作用的洞察力，帮助我们更好地理解多民族共存的不同方法如何可能促进稳定，或者反而导致敌意和冲突。以前的研究强调了种族间互动的政治性质，往往是敌对性质，以及需要中央司法机制，让不同身份的群体和平共处。在这方面，国家被认为是唯一适合通过结构性等级制度和国家支持的基础设施来处理种族间敌意的国家，这些基础设施可以控制、引导或压制种族之间正在进行的竞争，使不同的群体能够作为邻居在同一城市内或在邻近的定居点生活在一起。或者，非国家社会被认为没有能力管理种族间的敌意，导致群体转而生活在封闭的、空间隔离的领土上，在那里，群体间的冲突是无处不在的威胁。在匹兹堡大学伊丽莎白·阿尔库什博士的指导下，博士生瑞安·史密斯将在秘鲁南部的喀喀湖盆地附近进行全面的步行调查、密集的遗址测绘和系统的地面收集计划，以了解印加国家直接到达该地区(公元1000-1530年)之前和之后的种族景观变化。这些调查主要集中在喀喀湖周围的高原和安第斯山麓东部之间的一个重要过渡地带，形成了被描述为多民族边境的地区，在那里，各民族在印加控制下共存，如果不是更早的话。这项研究将首先检验国家一级的政治组织对于多民族共存是必要的假设，调查多民族是在印加国家到来之前还是之后出现的。调查数据还将允许研究人员通过制定哪些机构、组织形式或空间框架来测试多种族是如何有效排序的，以及这些群体间互动的方法在州和非州社会之间有何不同。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research addresses the development of multiethnic coexistence and the ways past societies effectively ordered and maintained contexts of social pluralism. In the globalized world today, many of cities and neighborhoods are vibrantly multiethnic, yet socially diverse communities are largely considered a fact of large, well-organized societies. Nevertheless, there is enough evidence for cases of multiethnic diversity in smaller, less-centralized societies to challenge this relationship and to question how groups of different levels of political complexity were able to effectively negotiate multiethnic coexistence. Archaeology is uniquely suited to address the long-term development of multiethnic societies, how they were ordered, and what sort of institutions were used to mitigate divisive and destructive forces which often plague inter-ethnic relations. In particular, by collecting data across periods when state-control was either suspended or in full-swing, this research will provide insights regarding the role of multi-ethnicity in a variety of political contexts, helping us better understand how different approaches to multiethnic coexistence may encourage stability or instead lead to hostility and conflict.Previous research has highlighted the political, often hostile nature of inter-ethnic interactions and the need for centralized judicial mechanisms for groups with diverse identities to peacefully live alongside one another. In this regard, states are considered uniquely suited to deal with inter-ethnic animosities through structural hierarchies and state-sponsored infrastructure which can control, channel, or suppress ongoing competition between ethnic groups, allowing different groups to live amongst one another as neighbors within the same city or in adjacent settlements. Alternatively, non-state societies are considered ill-equipped to manage inter-ethnic animosities, leading groups to instead live in exclusive, spatially segregated territories where inter-group conflict is an omnipresent threat. Under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Arkush of the University of Pittsburgh, doctoral candidate Ryan Smith will conduct full coverage pedestrian survey, intensive site mapping, and a program of systematic surface collections near the Lake Titicaca basin of southern Peru to understand changes in the ethnic landscape directly before and after the arrival of the Inca state in the area (AD 1000-1530). These investigations are specifically centered on an important transition zone between the high plains around Lake Titicaca and the eastern Andean piedmont, forming what has been described as a 'multiethnic frontier' where ethnic groups coexisted alongside one another under Inca control, if not earlier. This research will first test the hypothesis that state-level political organization was necessary for multiethnic coexistence, investigating whether multiethnicity appears prior to or after the arrival of the Inca state. Survey data will also allow researchers to test how multiethnicity was effectively ordered through addressing what institutions, organizational forms, or spatial frameworks were enacted and how these approaches to inter-group interaction differed between state and non-state societies.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.