Doctoral Dissertation Research: Organization of Rural Communities

该项目的目标是增加对热带和人口稀少地区社会经济组织的了解。研究小组将进行研究，研究低地热带地区的沉降密度的相关性。聚落密度——人口在景观上的分布方式——影响着社会互动的程度和性质，这可能导致不同的生活方式和组织形式。通过关注与社会经济组织概念相关的空间和物质成分，考古学很好地提供了相关的见解。以前关于社会经济差异的学术研究主要集中在阶级和地位上。该项目提供了另一种方法，通过定义聚落密度连续体中的位置是否在社会经济组织中发挥了相关作用。它将重新评估热带社会社会经济同质性和缺乏大规模一体化的假设。该项目的成果将纳入该地区当地可持续生态和考古旅游的计划中。本科生将接受考古方法方面的培训。本项目将探讨聚落密度与社会经济组织之间的关系。具体来说，这个项目将界定和比较三个住区密度类别（城市、近郊和农村）的大家庭群体。他们的生活方式和组织方式有何不同？聚落密度与不同形式的社会经济组织相关吗？使用一系列技术，包括遥感采样、建筑和遗址挖掘、材料分析和采购研究，该项目将研究每个采样组中的五种材料代理（空间功能、建筑能量学、专业生产、非本地物品和饮食模式）。如果材料代理不同，则可以根据地点和可能在社会经济组织中发挥相关作用的聚落密度来区分这些单位。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。

The goal of this project is to increase understanding of socioeconomic organization in tropical and sparsely populated regions. The research team will undertake research to study the relevance of settlement density in a lowland tropical region. Settlement density -how populations were spaced across the landscape- influences the degrees and nature of social interactions, which may result in diverse lifeways and forms of organization. Archaeology is well placed to provide relevant insight by focusing on the spatial and material components that are relevant to the notion of socioeconomic organization. Previous scholarship on socioeconomic distinctions has focused on class and status. This project provides an alternative approach by defining whether location in the settlement density continuum played a relevant role in socioeconomic organization. It will reassess assumptions of socioeconomic homogeneity and lack of large-scale integration within tropical societies. Results of this project will be incorporated into plans of local sustainable ecological and archaeological focused tourism in the region. Undergraduate students will be trained in archaeological methods.This project will investigate the relationship between settlement density and socioeconomic organization. Specifically, this project will characterize and compare extended household groups in three settlement density classes (urban, peri-urban and rural). How did lifeways and organizing schemes differed across them? Does settlement density correlate with varied forms of socioeconomic organization? Using a battery of techniques including remote sensing sampling, excavation of architecture and middens, material analyses, and sourcing studies, the project will study five material proxies in each sampled group (function of spaces, architectural energetics, specialized production, non-local items, and dietary patterns). If the materials proxies varied, it will be possible to distinguish these units based on location and settlement density likely played a relevant role in socioeconomic organization.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.