Long Term Analysis of Relationships between Social Complexity, Labor and Monumentality

社会复杂性、劳动与纪念性之间关系的长期分析

• 批准号: 2335047
• 负责人: Tristram Kidder
• 金额: $ 32.25万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2027-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2335047&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Long; Term; Analysis; Relationships; between

This project investigates the processes of social change in small-scale hunter-gatherer societies. Researchers wish to understand the processes that drive change in small-scale societies and how socially complex societies emerge over time. A central question is if these processes have a universal pattern, or if they vary from place to place and across different social types. Researchers have documented conditions under which persistent institutionalized social and economic inequalities develop among small-scale hunter-gatherer societies. These include the control of ritual practices, including monument building, as a way to create and sustain inter-generational transmission of wealth and rights to political power. Because controlling people to make things is a commonly recognized measure of political power, building massive earthen mounds often is used as a measure of social and political complexity. Complicated and energetically costly constructions are assumed to reflect greater social and political complexity, hierarchy, and economic integration. Scholars debate the historical processes that give rise to these inequalities; many researchers assert that social change and increasing inequality is an inevitable outcome of material accumulation and defense that enhances social prestige and reproductive success. Native American philosophy, however, interprets increasing complexity as the outcome of interactions among human and non-human agents in an infinitely complicated relational world. In this world, humans have moral responsibility to maintain order and balance realized through ritual actions such as monument building at charged places on the landscape. The project considers both a widely adopted archaeological assumption that hierarchical control leads to the development of large archaeological sites and compare it to a Native American approach which focuses not on hierarchy but rather community collaboration. The site is perhaps the largest hunter-gatherer site in the world with exceptionally large earthen mounds and ridges, and therefore is an ideal location to investigate if changing hunter-gatherer sociopolitical variation results from the accumulation of economic and labor control over hundreds of years as is claimed, or if building earthworks is a communal activity rapidly undertaken and given freely because Native people have a moral obligation to perform rituals at certain places that ensure balance, harmony, and order. To answer these questions, a multi-disciplinary team will use advanced quantitative and qualitative methods from archaeology, geology, and geotechnical engineering to investigate the history of site use, the pace and duration of earthwork construction, and earthwork building methods. Multi-method analyses allow assessment of whether hunter-gatherer complexity at the site an outgrowth of mutigenerational practices where unequal control of wealth was accumulated slowly encouraging the emergence of institutionalized political and economic complexity. This project provides educational opportunities and professional training to early career Native American scholars, U.S. and international students, school children and site visitors.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.

该项目调查了小型狩猎 - 采集社会社会变革的过程。研究人员希望了解驱动小型社会变化的过程以及社会复杂的社会如何随着时间的流逝而出现。一个核心问题是这些过程是否具有通用模式，或者它们因地点，地点和不同社会类型而异。研究人员记录了小规模狩猎者社会中持续制度化的社会和经济不平等的条件。这些包括控制仪式实践，包括纪念碑的建设，是一种创造和维持世间财富和政治权利权利的方式。因为控制人们做事是对政治权力的普遍认可，所以建造大量的土墩通常被用作对社会和政治复杂性的衡量。假定复杂且精力昂贵的建构反映了更大的社会和政治复杂性，等级制度和经济融合。学者辩论引起这些不平等的历史过程。许多研究人员断言，社会变革和增加不平等是物质积累和防御的必然结果，可以增强社会声望和生殖成功。然而，美国原住民哲学将越来越复杂的复杂性解释为在无限复杂的关系世界中人类和非人类代理人之间相互作用的结果。在这个世界上，人类有道德责任通过仪式行动（例如在景观上被带电的地方建造纪念碑建设）来维持秩序和平衡。该项目认为既采用的考古假设，既是层次结构的控制都会导致大型考古遗址的发展，并将其与美洲原住民的方法进行比较，而美国原住民的方法不关注等级制度，而是社区合作。该网站也许是世界上最大的猎人 - 加拿大地点，具有极大的土丘和山脊，因此是调查的理想地点，是否改变了狩猎者 - 加拿大的社会政治变化是由于经济和劳动力控制在数百年中积累而产生的，因为声称的数百年来积累了数百年，或者在建立领域会迅速进行社区活动，并且在某些方面既可以均能保持良好的态度，因为索要的命令是在自由的范围内，因为有足够的位置，并且能够保持良好的位置，并且能够保持良好的位置。为了回答这些问题，一个多学科的团队将使用考古，地质学和岩土工程的先进定量和定性方法，以研究现场使用的历史，土方构建的速度和持续时间以及地球工程建设方法。多方法分析允许评估该地点的猎人 - 采集者的复杂性是否产生了叛变实践的产物，在这种实践中，积累了不平等的财富控制，逐渐鼓励了制度化的政治和经济复杂性的出现。该项目为早期职业生涯的美国原住民学者，美国和国际学生，小学生和现场访问者提供教育机会和专业培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来支持的。