The Development Of Extensive Geographic Networks And Social Complexity

广泛的地理网络和社会复杂性的发展

• 批准号: 1449893
• 负责人: Kenneth Sassaman
• 金额: $ 12.21万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-15 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1449893&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Extensive; Geographic; Networks; Social

Researchers have long sought to understand how and why interaction among widely dispersed and mobile communities coalesced into larger and more complex and stationary sociopolitical entities. Previous scholarship on this topic has focused on the ecological and demographic factors that necessitated a more sedentary lifestyle. Population growth and the adoption of agriculture, in particular, have been frequently cited as key factors in this evolutionary process. Archaeology is now well positioned to achieve a more nuanced understanding of this critical transition by focusing on the actual movements and convergences of people and artifacts across ancient landscapes. In this project, Dr. Kenneth Sassaman and Dr. Zackary Gilmore, of the University of Florida, examine the shift from broadly distributed social and economic networks to relatively circumscribed place-based communities by tracing the circulation and accumulation of vessels representing North America's oldest pottery technology. Key questions guiding this research are: Was the shift to place-based communities anticipated by the spatial organization of existing regional networks? Or, alternatively, were existing regional networks contradicted or superseded by the organization and structure of place-based communities? Although geared explicitly toward past societies, this research bears relevance to the understanding of communities affected today by large-scale processes, such as globalization, neoliberalism, and global climate change, that challenge local autonomy and the persistence of tradition. Arising out of modern networks of communication, for instance, are virtual communities of practice that enable local access to knowledge hitherto restricted to those with the political and economic capacity to channel and control access to nonlocal information.Sassaman and Gilmore use chemical and mineralogical sourcing techniques to investigate how the organization of preexisting interaction networks enabled and constrained the emergence of durable place-based communities (i.e., villages). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) and petrography will be conducted on large samples of pottery sherds from Early (5150-4100 B.P.) and Classic (4100-3800 B.P.) Stallings period sites in the Savannah River valley of Georgia and South Carolina in order to test alternative hypotheses on pottery and clay variation as a function of changes in community scale and organization. To the extent that variations in Early Stallings pottery was differentially distributed in space, the place-based communities of Classic Stallings times likely emerged out of existing social distinctions. Conversely, inasmuch as Early Stallings pottery lacks detectable subregional variations, place-based communities emerged as novel social arrangements. In addition to helping to address a fundamental anthropological question, this research will create an educational and training opportunity by supporting a post-doctoral research position. It will also have an immediate positive impact on the research value of collections housed at six different repositories in the southeastern U.S., perhaps bolstering public and government commitment to the long-term curation of archaeological collections. In addition, the NAA and petrographic data collected will be made available to other researchers and thus enhance the capacity for comparative and synthetic research in the future.

长期以来，研究人员一直试图了解广泛分散和移动社区之间的相互作用以及为什么融合为更大，更复杂和固定的社会政治实体。 先前关于该主题的奖学金集中在需要更具久坐生活方式的生态和人口因素上。 尤其是人口增长和农业的采用，经常被认为是这种进化过程中的关键因素。 现在，考古学的位置很好，可以通过关注古代景观的人们和人工制品的实际运动和融合来实现对这一批判过渡的更加细微的理解。 在该项目中，佛罗里达大学的肯尼斯·萨萨曼（Kenneth Sassaman）博士和扎卡里·吉尔莫尔（Zackary Gilmore）博士通过追踪代表北美最古老的陶器技术的船只的流通和积累来研究从广泛分布的社会和经济网络到相对限制的基于地点的社区的转变。 指导这项研究的关键问题是：是否转向现有区域网络的空间组织预期的基于地点的社区？或者，或者，现有的区域网络是否与基于地方社区的组织和结构相矛盾或取代？尽管这项研究明确地针对过去的社会，但与对当今受到大规模过程影响的社区的理解有关，例如全球化，新自由主义和全球气候变化，这挑战了当地的自主权和传统的持久性。 Arising out of modern networks of communication, for instance, are virtual communities of practice that enable local access to knowledge hitherto restricted to those with the political and economic capacity to channel and control access to nonlocal information.Sassaman and Gilmore use chemical and mineralogical sourcing techniques to investigate how the organization of preexisting interaction networks enabled and constrained the emergence of durable place-based communities (i.e., villages). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) and petrography will be conducted on large samples of pottery sherds from Early (5150-4100 B.P.) and Classic (4100-3800 B.P.) Stallings period sites in the Savannah River valley of Georgia and South Carolina in order to test alternative hypotheses on pottery and clay variation as a function of changes in community scale and organization. 在某种程度上，早期摊位的变化在太空中分布差分分布，经典失速时代的基于地点的社区可能出现在现有的社会区别中。 相反，随着早期失速的陶器缺乏可检测到的次区域变化，基于地点的社区作为新颖的社会安排出现。 除了帮助解决基本人类学问题外，这项研究还将通过支持博士后研究职位来创造教育和培训机会。这也将对美国​​东南部六个不同存储库中藏品的研究价值产生直接的积极影响，这可能会增强公众和政府对考古收藏的长期策划的承诺。 此外，收集的NAA和岩石学数据将提供给其他研究人员，从而增强了将来的比较和合成研究的能力。