Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Cultural Interaction in Frontier Situations

社会科学领域的研究人员试图了解殖民主义和世界体系扩张的过程如何帮助创造了当今日益全球化的世界。由于考古学侧重于物质遗迹和长期的连续性和变化，它特别适合于提供对不同政治、经济和社会制度的社会接触的过程和这些互动的结果的洞察。北美土著居民和欧洲定居者之间的第一次接触是在这个全球殖民世界的背景下进行的，但北美土著人民不仅仅是其中的被动或边缘行为者。通过将重点放在社区层面，这项研究强调土著人民的决策和机构，允许土著对殖民的反应不同于简单的接受或拒绝。这里探讨的社会现象也发生在世界各地的其他殖民区和世界系统的边缘，因此结论和方法促进了对具有广泛的全球兴趣的过程的理解。该项目通过培训一名STEM方法研究生和一名考古研究和数据管理方法本科生，促进了社会成果。它不涉及挖掘，并使用现有考古收藏品的数据，增加了公共拥有的资源的价值，同时保持了保护的伦理。其中许多藏品由文化资源管理公司和大学持有，为学术和行业研究人员未来的合作创造了基础设施。在这个项目中，调查人员使用放射性碳测年和欧洲贸易商品(如金属物品和玻璃珠)的分析来调查三个不同的土著社区如何参与世界体系的扩张。研究人员考察了今天加拿大安大略省南部的不同土著社区何时以及如何首次与欧洲定居者互动，他们问道：研究地区的所有土著群体最初是否同时与欧洲人接触？他们是否都以同样的方式互动，接受同样的商品？还是有些人回避、拒绝或推迟了与欧洲人的互动？这些研究问题的答案将是：(1)通过高精度AMS放射性碳测年的贝叶斯时间模型，经验地建立不同地点被占用的时间，以及(2)建立欧洲制造对象的当地和地区分布，包括金属工具和玻璃珠。放射性碳测年将确定每个社区中的哪些地点同时被使用，而贸易良好的分布将确定这些社区如何与欧洲定居者互动。该项目将产生57个新的AMS放射性碳测年数据，这些数据来自Wendat、Tionontate和Attiwandaron遗址，年代可以追溯到公元1550-1650年，以及一个新的综合数据库，其中包括加拿大安大略省和魁北克省土著遗址上的欧洲制造贸易商品。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。

Researchers across the social sciences seek to understand how processes of colonialism and world-system expansion helped to create today's increasingly globalized world. Because of its focus on material remains and long-term continuity and change, archaeology is uniquely suited to provide insight into the processes that brought societies with different political, economic, and social systems into contact and the outcomes of those interactions. First contact between Indigenous North Americans and European settlers occurred in the context of this global colonial world, but Indigenous peoples in North America were not simply passive or marginal actors within it. By focusing on the community level, this research emphasizes the decisions and agency of Indigenous people, allowing for variation in Indigenous reactions to colonization beyond simple acceptance or rejection. The social phenomenon explored here also occurred around the world in other colonized areas and along the edges of world-systems, so the conclusions and methods advance understanding of processes which are of broad, global interest. This project advances societal outcomes by training one graduate student in STEM methods (the co-PI), and one undergraduate in archaeological research and data management methods. It involves no excavation and uses data from existing archaeological collections, increasing the value of publicly-held resources while maintaining an ethic of preservation. Many of these collections are held by cultural resource management companies and universities, creating infrastructure for future collaboration between academic and industry researchers.In this project the investigators use radiocarbon dating and analysis of European trade goods (such as metal objects and glass beads) to investigate how three different Indigenous communities participated in world-system expansion. The researchers examine when and how different Indigenous communities in what is today southern Ontario, Canada first interacted with European settlers by asking: Did all Indigenous groups in the study region initially engage with Europeans at the same time? Were they all interacting in the same way and accepting the same kinds of goods? Or did some people avoid, refuse, or delay interaction with Europeans? These research questions will be answered by: (1) Establishing, empirically, when different sites were occupied through Bayesian chronological modeling of high-precision AMS radiocarbon dates, and (2) Establishing the local and regional distribution of objects of European manufacture, including metal tools and glass beads. The radiocarbon dates will establish which sites in each community were being used at the same time, and the trade good distributions will establish how those communities were interacting with European settlers. This project will result in the creation of 57 new AMS radiocarbon dates from Wendat, Tionontate, and Attiwandaron sites dated to ca. AD 1550-1650, as well as the a novel comprehensive database of European-manufactured trade goods on indigenous sites in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.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.