Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Material Culture in Ethnicity Identification

在考古背景下发现的材料有能力揭示产生这些材料的文化群体。原因是大多数文化都有“规范”，在这种规范中，个体风格可以用来识别产生它们的个体社会，考古学家使用这种“风格”来确定群体关系。有了这样的识别，就有可能重建单个文化群体如何跨越空间移动，如何与其他群体互动，以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化。然而，确定物质文化和群体认同之间的关系并不罕见，这可能是一件复杂的事情，本博士论文项目关注的就是这样一个案例。目标是进一步提高这种类型的匹配能力，结果应该有助于开发更好的技术来做到这一点。该项目的重点是所谓的“萨拉多现象”，指的是一群在美国西南部史前晚期突然出现的陶器类型，似乎分散在多个群体中。因为它们与其他物质对象的变化无关，在这种情况下，它们似乎与文化群体的地理运动无关，因此本论文的目的是深入了解导致这种文化现象的原因。该项目的重点是萨拉多陶器，这些陶器是从多个考古遗址挖掘出来的，收藏在博物馆的藏品中。该项目既包括化学分析，可以提供对陶瓷件的地理起源的洞察，也包括对陶瓷形状的分析。该项目通过这一中心案例研究，开发了理论概念和分析方法在考古研究中的新应用和实际实施。这项工作开发的方法与对世界其他地方观察到的类似物质现象的审查有关，在这些现象中，广泛分布的物质模式覆盖了文化差异。该项目通过一个部门研究学徒计划为本科生提供培训、研究经验和指导。该项目是在与盐河皮马-马里科帕印第安人社区和吉拉河印第安人社区的部落历史保护办公室持续对话的情况下设计和实施的，以回应和尊重文化关切和偏好。组成研究在亚利桑那州立大学和密苏里大学研究反应堆(MURR)考古实验室的NSF支持的实习项目中进行。整个容器的轮廓图像和档案来源的测量被用来对陶瓷容器的形状进行数学表征和比较，以了解陶瓷组件的组织和结构，并评估萨拉多容器在其中所起的功能作用。通过为萨拉多陶瓷的来源、生产技术和使用建立经验证据，本研究为接触材料和实践的实际意义和社会意义提供了一个新的视角，并有助于在地方和区域尺度上重新评估先前对这一现象的解释模型。这篇论文的研究通过这个中心案例研究开发了理论概念和分析方法在考古研究中的新应用和实践实施。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。

Materials recovered in archaeological contexts have the ability to shed light on the cultural groups which produced them. The reason is that most cultures have “norms” in which individual styles can serve to identify the individual societies which produced them and archaeologists use such “styles” to determine group affiliation. With such identifications it is then possible to reconstruct how individual cultural groups moved across space, interacted with other groups and how they changed over time. However not infrequently identifying the relationship between material culture and group identification can be complicated and this doctoral dissertation project focuses on such a case. The goal is to further the ability to make matches of this type and the results should help in the development of better techniques to do so. The project focuses on what is termed the “Salado phenomenon” which refers to a group of pottery types which appear suddenly in the late prehistory of the US Southwest and appear to spread across multiple groups. Because they are not associated with changes in other material objects in this case they seem unrelated to the geographical movement of cultural groups and the goal of this dissertation project is to gain insight into what causes such a cultural phenomenon. The project focuses on Salado ceramics which have been excavated from multiple archaeological sites and are housed in museum collections. The project includes both chemical analyses which can provide insights into the geographic origin of ceramic pieces as well as analyses of ceramic shapes. The project develops new applications and practical implementations of theoretical concepts and analytical methods in archaeological research through this central case study. The approach developed in this work is relevant to examinations of similar material phenomena observed elsewhere in the world, where broadly distributed material patterns overlie cultural variability. The project has provided training, research experience, and mentorship for undergraduate students through a departmental research apprenticeship program. The project was designed and carried out in continued conversation with the Tribal Historic Preservation Offices of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Gila River Indian Community, in order to be responsive to and respectful of cultural concerns and preferences.Compositional studies are conducted both at Arizona State University and through an NSF-supported internship program at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) Archaeometry Lab. Silhouette images of whole vessel profiles and measurements from archival sources are used to mathematically characterize and compare the shapes of ceramic vessels to understand the organization and structure of ceramic assemblages and assess the functional roles Salado vessels served within them. By establishing empirical evidence for the provenance, production technology, and use of Salado ceramics this research provides a new perspective on the practical and social meanings of engagement with materials and practices and aids in reassessing previous explanatory models of the phenomenon at both local and regional scales. This dissertation research develops new applications and practical implementations of theoretical concepts and analytical methods in archaeological research through this central case study.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.