Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Food And Social Complexity

对过去社会中社会不平等的研究有助于考古学家了解社会结构的发展。具有社会政治等级制度的早期文明往往有复杂的基础设施，旨在组织人员和资源的流动。例如，寺庙金字塔和堤道等令人印象深刻的建筑将当地居民与重要建筑连接起来，同时也赋予了治理实体或个人尺子的权威。社会政治力量也会影响向人口供应自然资源的方式。博士论文项目通过在社会复杂性发展的早期阶段对一个地点的动物骨骼进行恢复和分析，研究了家庭中的社会分化。考古学中主要以骨骼的形式保存下来的动物(动物群)遗骸的研究，有助于确定在该地区最初的城市化时期，这些产品是否在住宅中分配不均。这个项目通过勾勒一个古老国家的合作性质，为正在进行的关于国家起源的讨论做出了贡献。因此，这项研究通过研究社区的组织方式，划分了统一和等级，从而突出了古代社区的动态。该项目支持培养一名来自科学界代表性不足的少数民族的博士生。考古沉积物中的动物骨骼通常被解读为人类过去食用的保存下来的动物遗骸。这项研究有助于回答这样一个中心问题，即是否通过饮食明确定义了网站中精英成员和非精英成员(普通人)的地位差异。通过分析物种分布的模式，该项目将：(1)确定本地和非本地动物的数量；(2)揭示难以获得的生物与常见生物的存在或不存在；以及(3)确定家庭中不同比例的动物的数量。这位博士生将挖掘几个家庭建筑及其垃圾处理。动物样本将使用常见的动物考古量化单位进行编目、称重和计数。将对量化数据进行统计分析和图形建模。将这种动物考古调查与对家庭结构设计和建筑材料、居住位置以及相关文物的检查结合起来，对于能够识别史前人类的社会身份至关重要。这种方法还为古代人口中的社会不平等提供了背景支持，同时促进了对当代和相关问题的逐步理解：对自然资源分配的社会经济控制。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。

The study of social inequality in past societies has helped archeologists understand the development of social structures. Earlier civilizations with sociopolitical hierarchies often had complex infrastructure designed to organize movement of people and resources. For example, impressive constructions like temple pyramids and causeways, connected local residents to important buildings while also legitimizing the authority of governing entities or individual rulers. Sociopolitical powers also influence the way natural resources are supplied to a population. The doctoral dissertation project examines social differentiation in households through the recovery and analysis of animal bones at a site in an early stage of social complexity development. Examining animal (faunal) remains, which primarily survive in archaeology as bones, help to determine if these products were unevenly allocated within residences during the period of initial urbanization in the region. This project contributes to ongoing discussions on the origins of states by outlining the cooperative nature of an archaic state. The research thus highlights dynamics of an ancient community by studying the way neighborhoods were organized demarcating unity and hierarchy. This project supports the training of a doctoral student from an underrepresented minority in the sciences. Animal bones in archaeological deposits are often interpreted as preserved remnants of animals that people consumed in the past. This study aids in answering the central question of whether status differentiation in the form of elite to nonelite members (commoners) at the site were clearly defined through diet. By analyzing patterns in species distribution, the project will: (1) identify amounts of local and non-local animals; (2) reveal the presence or absence of difficult to acquire vs. common organisms; and (3) determine the quantity of dissimilar proportions of fauna amongst households. The doctoral student will excavate several household structures and their refuse disposals. Faunal samples will be catalogued, weighed, and counted using common zooarchaeological quantification units. Quantitative data will be statistically analyzed and graphically modeled. Coupling this zooarchaeological investigation with examinations of household structural design and building material, residential location, and associated artifacts is essential to being able to recognize social identities among the prehistoric people. Such an approach also provides contextual support for social inequality in an ancient population while furthering the progressive understanding of a contemporary and relevant issue: socioeconomic control over the distribution of natural resources.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.