The Origins of Modern States

现代国家的起源

• 批准号: 2114282
• 负责人: Michael Cosmopoulos
• 金额: $ 25.7万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Saint Louis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2114282&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origins; Modern; States

The transition from a world without states to a world where states are the dominant political institutions is one of the most crucial turning points in our history, and one that is fundamental to our understanding of modern society and government. This project will investigate the processes of state formation, with emphasis on the origins of the two-tiered types of administration that preceded modern federal government. This award will examine the earliest recorded states in the western world, which appear to have been administered by both central and district governments. At the heart of the issue is the applicability of neo-evolutionary models: Are states the products of a linear evolution from simpler/non-hierarchical to complex/hierarchical political forms, or can they be the outcomes of multilinear trajectories? And are they created by powerful agents at the top of the sociopolitical scale, or can they be affected by groups outside the top-tier palatial centers? As the training field for scores of graduate and undergraduate students, with substantial representation of women and minorities, the project will have significant value in terms of inclusiveness and education. Finally, in terms of protecting our cultural heritage, the project will conserve, restore, and protect one of the worlds earliest state capitals and create the infrastructure for opening up archaeological sites to the general public. Current explanations of state formation, framed in terms of neo-evolutionary theory and based on the evidence from a handful of top-tier palaces, consider that formation to be a product of the coalescence of preexisting chiefdoms. Recent theoretical advances and fieldwork have, however, shown the weaknesses of exclusive top-down approaches and the unreliability of general heuristic explanations. More nuanced hypotheses are needed, that would define the agents and the processes behind state formation, using region- and culture-specific models and combining evidence from both top- and lower-tier centers. Through systematic excavation and detailed historical modelling, this project will produce the datasets needed to test existing and new hypotheses about state formation and operation; the results will then be contextualized within general models explaining state formation in other regions. In terms of methods, the combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, and the wider contextualization of specific historical models will add important new blocks to the emerging comparative framework about state formation and evolution around the world. In terms of interdisciplinarity and international cooperation, the project will serve as the vehicle for large-scale international, collaborative, multi-disciplinary research that will integrate the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.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.

从一个没有国家的世界到一个以国家为主导政治机构的世界的转变是我们历史上最关键的转折点之一，也是我们理解现代社会和政府的基础。该项目将调查国家形成的过程，重点是现代联邦政府之前的两级行政管理类型的起源。该奖项将审查西方世界最早有记录的国家，这些国家似乎由中央和地区政府管理。 问题的核心是新进化模型的适用性：国家是从简单/非等级政治形式到复杂/等级政治形式的线性演变的产物，还是可以是多线性轨迹的结果？它们是由社会政治顶级的强大代理人创建的，还是会受到顶级宫殿中心之外的群体的影响？ 作为大量研究生和本科生的培训领域，其中女性和少数族裔占很大比例，该项目在包容性和教育方面将具有重大价值。最后，在保护我们的文化遗产方面，该项目将保存、恢复和保护世界上最早的州首府之一，并为向公众开放考古遗址建立基础设施。当前对国家形成的解释以新进化论为框架，并基于少数顶级宫殿的证据，认为国家形成是先前存在的酋长管辖地合并的产物。然而，最近的理论进展和实地工作表明，排他性自上而下方法的弱点和一般启发式解释的不可靠性。需要更细致的假设，使用特定于地区和文化的模型并结合来自顶层和底层中心的证据来定义国家形成背后的代理人和过程。通过系统的挖掘和详细的历史建模，该项目将产生测试有关国家形成和运行的现有和新假设所需的数据集；然后将结果纳入解释其他地区国家形成的一般模型中。在方法方面，自上而下和自下而上方法的结合，以及特定历史模型更广泛的语境化，将为正在出现的关于世界各地国家形成和演变的比较框架增添重要的新模块。在跨学科性和国际合作方面，该项目将成为大规模国际、协作、多学科研究的载体，将人文科学、社会科学和自然科学融为一体。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并具有通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。