Investigating the Origins of Social Complexity

调查社会复杂性的起源

• 批准号: 1950988
• 负责人: Takeshi Inomata
• 金额: $ 29.71万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1950988&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Origins; Social; Complexity

The construction of monuments and ceremonial centers in the ancient past is often assumed to indicate a society with complex social organization, with established agriculture and a sedentary way of life, the use of ceramics, large populations, and centralized power. While it is interesting to study these complex societies, recent investigations suggest that some large constructions were built earlier, during the transition to a sedentary way of life and the initial use of ceramics. These observations lead to an important question of how such early monumental constructions arose. That is, what social, cultural, and environmental factors were at play in earlier societies that made large collective work possible? In this project, the investigators will excavate archaeological sites that immediately pre-date the emergence of a monumental ceremonial center to examine subsistence strategies, technology, social organization, and cultural affinities in these earlier groups. The work will advance fundamental knowledge about human ability to adapt to a wide range of environments. The project supports student training and mentoring from the undergraduate through the postdoctoral level, international research and teaching collaborations, and several public science outreach activities.The investigators will examine the transition from the preceramic period to the ceramic period in a lowland setting where remains of the late preceramic period are virtually absent and where burials dating to this period are extremely rare. The team’s previous excavations revealed four burials without any associated ceramics. Radiocarbon dating provided dates that were earlier than the ceramic-bearing contexts known at this site when a ceremonial complex was constructed. The excavation of more preceramic features will provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine social conditions leading to this remarkable societal transformation. These investigations will provide critical information on a longstanding question about the origins of early lowland ceramics and their users, as well as continuity and change from preceramic technologies and material culture to those of the ceramic period. The data will provide information on the level of maize cultivation, which may have made drastic societal development possible. Moreover, this study will contribute to the broader anthropological question of human adaptation to lowland environments before the development of full-scale agriculture, as well as the interactions among groups practicing different subsistence strategies.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.

古老的过去的纪念碑和礼仪的建构表明，一个具有复杂社会的社会，虽然有趣的是，融合的农业和一种浓郁的生活方式，陶瓷的使用，大量人群和中心化的能力这些复杂的生活和最初的陶瓷使用将挖掘考古遗址的出现，以研究这些早期群体中的生存性，技术，社会组织和文化亲和力来自地下的学生和教学合作。与陶瓷相关的情况是构建仪式的情况在发展不同的农业实行不同的生存策略之前，人类对低地环境的适应性问题可能使社会发展成为可能。智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。