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

博士论文研究：物质文化在民族认同中的作用

• 批准号: 2341169
• 负责人: Matthew Peeples
• 金额: $ 1.67万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-11-01 至 2025-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2341169&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Role; Material

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.

在考古背景下回收的材料能够阐明产生它们的文化群体。原因是大多数文化都有“规范”，在这些规范中，各个样式可以用来识别产生它们的个别社会，考古学家使用这种“风格”来确定群体会员。通过这样的识别，可以重建单个文化群体如何在太空中移动，与其他群体进行交互以及他们如何随着时间的变化进行互动。但是，并没有很少识别物质文化与群体识别之间的关系可能很复杂，并且该博士学位论文项目的重点是这种情况。目的是进一步实现这种类型的匹配能力，结果应有助于开发更好的技术。该项目的重点是称为“沙拉多现象”的项目，该项目指的是一组陶器类型，这些类型突然出现在美国西南部的晚期史前历史上，并且似乎遍布多个群体。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，而该论文项目的目标是深入了解导致这种文化现象的原因。该项目的重点是从多个存档地点发掘的沙拉多陶瓷，并安置在博物馆收藏中。该项目既包括化学分析，又可以提供有关陶瓷碎片的地理起源的见解以及陶瓷形状的分析。该项目通过此中央案例研究开发了档案研究中理论概念和分析方法的新应用和实践。在这项工作中开发的方法与世界其他地方观察到的类似物质现象的检查有关，在这些现象中，广泛分布的物质模式覆盖了文化变异性。该项目通过部门研究学徒计划为本科生提供了培训，研究经验和心态。该项目是在与盐河Pima-Maricopa印度社区和Gila River Indian社区的部落历史保护办公室继续对话时进行设计和进行的，以便对文化关注和偏好的反应并尊重文化关注和偏好。整个容器剖面的剪影图像和档案源的测量值用于数学表征和比较陶瓷容器的形状，以了解陶瓷组合的组织和结构，并评估其中提供的功能作用。通过建立有关萨拉多陶瓷的出处，生产技术和使用的经验证据，这项研究为与材料和实践的互动的实践和社会含义提供了新的观点，并有助于重新评估本地和区域规模的现象的先前剥削模型。这项论文研究的发展通过这项中央案例研究在考古研究中对理论概念和分析方法的实际实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响来诚实地认为，通过评估诚实地支持了审查标准。