Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Multiple Power Levels in Governance

这一博士论文项目调查了地方领导人如何通过发展独特的领导地位和实践来与至高无上的皇权进行谈判。该项目考察了一个古老的帝国省份，考察了起源于社区的帝国前地方领导人与新的侵扰型帝国精英之间的关系。通过将规则视为通过代理和节点网络完成的事情，工作重点放在策略、忠诚度和行动范围等问题上，以理解规则是如何在基层构成的。该项目审查了国家保留了规则的哪些方面，以及将哪些方面割让给了地方代理人。这样的地方代理人如何利用他们在帝国中的地位来提高自己的地位，扩大他们的权力，或保护他们的臣民？地方领导人如何认同这个最重要的帝国，或者与之区分开来？长期以来，这些问题一直是研究殖民主义的中心问题，在当代关于主权、本土化的坚持/抵抗和国家建设的讨论中仍然具有相关性。这个研究项目的更广泛的影响包括当地社区的参与和教育机会，对参与文化资源管理的学生和当地个人进行培训。这个项目调查在一个特定的考古情况下建立和竞争的政府。区域考古调查揭示了治理的分层格局。除了源于先前传统的考古建筑群外，还有一种在空间上截然不同的类型，由覆盖的帝国基础设施网络组成。这项研究的重点是比较地方领导和皇室遗址在更大的社会和农业格局中的活动和地位。解决这些问题的数据是通过在这些治理节点进行密集的地面收集、在四个此类地点进行挖掘以及先前的无人机和行人调查而产生的。基于地理信息系统(GIS)的分析比较了一系列地方和侵入性治理网站的人工制品组合中的站点内模式和站点间变异性，以及与财富和主要金融、日常做法、社区和殡仪馆仪式以及风格从属关系有关的特征。有了不同类型治理地点所代表的活动变化的信息，就有可能将这些地点及其居民置于治理环境中，阐明广义的帝国-地方治理是如何创建、分配和实施的。这一奖项反映了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。

This doctoral dissertation project investigates how local leaders negotiate with an overarching imperial power through developing distinctive leadership positions and practices. Examining an ancient imperial province, the project examines the relationship between pre-empire local leaders who derived originally from the community and new governing intrusive empire elites. By viewing rule as something that is done through networks of agents and nodes, the work focuses on questions of strategies, allegiance, and spheres of action in understanding how rule is constituted at the grass-roots level. The project examines what aspects of rule are retained by the state and what is ceded to local proxies. How do such local proxies use their positions in the empire to improve their own standing, further their power, or protect their subject populations? How do the local leaders identify with, or distinguish themselves from, the overarching empire? Such issues have long been central in studying colonialism and remain relevant in contemporary discussions of sovereignty, localized persistence/resistance, and nation building. The broader impacts of this research project include local community participation and educational opportunities training of students and local individuals involved in cultural resource management.This project investigates governances constructed and contested in one specific archaeological situation. Regional archaeological survey has revealed a layered landscape of governance. In addition to archaeological compounds which derive from a prior tradition a second spatially distinct type, consists of a network of overlain imperial infrastructure. The research focuses on comparing local leadership as well as imperial sites in terms of activities and position in the larger social and agricultural landscape. The data to address these issues are generated from intensive surface collection at these governance nodes, excavations at four such sites, and prior drone and pedestrian survey. Geographic Information System (GIS) based analysis compares intra-site patterns and inter-site variability in artifact assemblages and features relating to wealth and staple finance, daily practice, communal and mortuary ritual, and stylistic affiliation for a range of governance sites, both local and intrusive. With information on the variability in activities represented by the different types of governance sites, it becomes possible to situate these sites and their residents in a governance landscape, illuminating how imperial – local governance, broadly defined, was created, distributed and practiced.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.