Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Case Study of Jaketown Social Organization

狩猎采集者被认为生活在没有正式领导的小群体中。然而，最近的研究表明，过去的狩猎采集者有各种形式的领导和组织方式。在这个更广泛的背景下，这个项目将使用密西西比州一个遗址的土堆建筑的规模和速度，作为理解建造劳动密集型纪念碑所需的领导程度的代理。这片巨大的景观为狩猎采集者的社会政治组织提供了一个理想的研究案例，特别是领导、规划、土堆建设和土著历史之间的关系，这些关系导致了引人注目的贫困点现象。杰克敦遗址是一个注册的国家历史遗址，了解更多关于贫困点非凡文化的社会组织和他们留下的纪念碑将增加该遗址已经显著的遗产价值。此外，研究小组致力于与奇卡索和乔克托部落合作，创造和分享知识。研究人员将挖掘三个土墩。使用标准的考古方法和地质考古方法，他们将恢复地层证据和文物，包括放射性碳定年的材料，这将使他们能够探索这些土丘的建造速度，以及它们是否同时建造。如果土丘是快速同时建造的，这表明有规划和领导能力。快速建造多个土墩需要努力和协调，这超出了一个家庭的能力；一些人或一些人需要动员劳动力，指导工作，并确保工人可以获得资源。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。

Hunter-gatherers are thought to live in small groups with no formal leaders. However, recent research indicates that hunter-gatherers in the past had a variety of forms of leadership and ways of organizing themselves. Within this broader context this project will use the scale and pace of earthen mound building at a site in Mississippi as a proxy for understanding the extent of leadership required to construct labor intensive monuments. The monumental landscape presents an ideal case study for hunter-gatherer socio-political organization, and specifically the relationships between leadership, planning, mound building, and the Native histories that led to the remarkable Poverty Point phenomenon. The Jaketown site is a registered National Historic Place and learning more about the social organization of the extraordinary Poverty Point culture and the monuments they left behind will add to the already significant heritage value of the site. Furthermore, the research team is committed to collaborating with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in generating and sharing knowledge. The researchers will excavate three mounds. Using standard archaeological methods augmented with geoarchaeological approaches, they will recover stratigraphic evidence and artifacts, including material for radiocarbon dating, that will allow them to explore how quickly these mounds were built, and if they were built at the same time. If the mounds were built quickly and simultaneously it suggests planning and leadership. Building multiple mounds quickly requires effort and coordination that that surpasses the capability of a household; some person or persons need to mobilize the labor, direct the work, and ensure resources were available to workers.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.