Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Variable Household Use of Space

长期以来，研究人员一直有兴趣了解文化如何随着时间的推移而变化。 理解一种特定类型的文化转变，即社会不平等的产生和延续，与现代社会现实特别相关。这个项目建立在以前的人种学和考古学研究的基础上，研究复杂的狩猎采集群体如何从平等主义社会转变为非平等主义社会。了解家庭成员对这种社会变化的表达和经历是本研究的主要重点。一个社会如何才能从共享资源的文化精神转变为促进限制资源获取的文化精神？如何界定获得资源和权力的权利，以及谁被包括在内（或不包括在内）？本研究通过分析以家庭为基础的互动的变化来研究这些问题，以揭示性别，亲属关系和代理在新兴社会等级制度中定义获得权力和资源的角色。 这个博士论文项目检查以前收集的材料从一个网站，其中包含一个序列的15个人为楼层。 研究人员将进行新的宏观植物学分析，并使用广泛的尖端分析技术（地球化学来源，残留物研究和古代DNA分析）检查来自四个职业的石器文物，以了解什么类型的活动构成了不同时期的社会身份。 这些数据的空间和统计分析将用于理解，重建和解释过去家庭互动随时间的变化。 因此，这项研究将为理解社会认同与家庭一级制度化不平等的出现之间的相互作用创造新的框架。 该研究将积极包括第一民族的观点和文化知识，以解释和促进正在进行的公共记忆项目在该地区。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

Researchers have long been interested in understanding how culture changes over time. Understanding one particular type of cultural shift, the creation and perpetuation of social inequality, is particularly pertinent to modern-day social realities. This project builds on previous ethnographic and archaeological research into how complex fisher-hunter-gatherer groups shift from an egalitarian to a non-egalitarian society. Understanding the expression and experience of such social change by members of households is the primary focus of this research. How might a society go from a cultural ethos of sharing access to resources to one promoting restricted access? How is access to resources and power defined and who is included (or not included)? This research investigates these questions by analyzing changes in household-based interactions to unravel the roles gender, kinship, and agency play in defining access to power and resources within an emerging social hierarchy. This doctoral dissertation project examines previously collected material from a site which contains a sequence of 15 anthropogenic floors. The researchers will conduct new macrobotanical analyses and examine lithic artifacts from four occupations using a wide array of cutting-edge analytical techniques (geo-chemical sourcing, residue studies, and ancient DNA analysis) to understand what types of activities constituted social identities during different times within the housepit. Spatial and statistical analysis of these data will be used to understand, reconstruct, and interpret changes in past household interactions over time. This research will thus create new frameworks for understanding the interplay between social identity and the emergence of institutionalized inequality at the household level. The research will actively include First Nation perspectives and cultural knowledge to interpret and contribute to ongoing public memory projects in the region.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.