| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 16, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 16, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1734513 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
John Yellen
jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | May 15, 2017 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $29,742.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $29,742.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87131-0001 (505)277-4186 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NM US 87131-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology DDRI |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Semi-sedentary groups often live on the peripheries of more complex societies, interacting with those groups through various mechanisms including exchange and conflict. The semi-sedentary groups may emphasize or mask aspects of their identities in such boundary situations to facilitate movement and interaction across the borders. Dr. Patricia Crown and Miss Jacqueline Kocer of the University of New Mexico will conduct archaeological research to understand how semi-sedentary groups located on the periphery of more complex societies negotiated these social boundaries, particularly in a setting of ongoing violence. This research is relevant to understanding how "alien" groups manipulate symbols and either try to blend or resist assimilation into a more powerful society. The study also examines the level of cohesion among groups along the borders and how they might band together or factionalize. This broad perspective can inform on United States policies and strategies used to ameliorate violence along the borders today. The project provides educational opportunities including the co-PI, who is a female scientist of Hispanic and Native American ancestry and undergraduates of similar heritage from the University of New Mexico, who will assist in laboratory analyses. Results will be shared with the public through lectures, a museum exhibit, a blog available through the UNM anthropology website, and with the scientific community through publication. All data generated from this project will be made available to the public through digital repositories.
Do semi-sedentary groups living in dispersed settlements share practices and knowledge broadly? Do these groups also emphasize a shared group identity? When such groups live on the periphery of a more socially complex polity, do they share, borrow, or copy practices from their more complex neighbors? The researchers will evaluate the extent of intergroup interaction (village, zone, or across the culture area) and group identity through models of communities of practice and communities of identity. Groups participating in the same community of practice share a background of learning and their "ways of doing" are similar. Low visibility attributes are used to examine the scale of communities of practice based on shared knowledge and practice in the sequence of production for ceramics. High visibility attributes will be used to examine the scale of communities of identity, wherein groups asserted their identity with shared symbols through ceramic design. The Gallina culture (A.D. 1050-1300) of northwestern New Mexico is an ideal case study to examine these issues as they constituted disaggregated, semi-sedentary groups bordering the more socially complex polities on all sides. They created artifacts distinct from their neighbors and are lived in an area with high levels of violence evidenced by burned structures and skeletal trauma. Analysis from six sites from the Gallina area will determine how proximity to group boundaries affects community cohesion. This project is of broad anthropological significance because understanding how patterns of interaction are related to shared knowledge and practice has implications for how peripheral semi-sedentary groups interact at multiple scales throughout the world.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project examines how semi-sedentary groups interact through patterns of ceramic production practices. As a case study, ceramics sherds from six Gallina (AD 1100-1300) sites from northwestern New Mexico are analyzed. Groups that live in a single village year-round have patterns of artifact production that indicate sharing of information and use of artifacts as identity markers. Anthropologists know much less about how semi-sedentary groups that move more often produce artifacts, share information, and signal identity. The Gallina lived in a mountainous area bordering more complex groups, including the people who occupied Chaco Canyon. Gallina sites show considerable evidence for violence, suggesting that life was dangerous and precarious. They utilized different practice, exchange and conflict mechanisms to negotiate social boundaries. Here, the research goal is to understand how semi-sedentary groups located on the periphery of more complex societies negotiated these social boundaries, particularly in a setting of ongoing violence. This study is of broad anthropological significance.
This research is relevant to understanding how “alien” groups manipulate symbols and either try to blend or resist assimilation into a more powerful society. The study also examines the level cohesion among groups along borders and how they might band together or factionalize. This broad prospective can inform on United States policies and strategies used to ameliorate violence along the borders today. The project provides educational opportunities including the co-PI, who is a female scientist of Hispanic and Native American ancestry. Results will be shared with the public through lectures, a museum exhibit, a blog available through the UNM anthropology website, and with the scientific and tribal communities through publication. All data generated from this project will be made available to the public through digital repositories.
During this phase of research, results indicate highly variable clay selection even within a single site, suggesting opportunistic gathering of materials rather than a shared practice. Design motifs also appear to vary within and between sites. With further analysis of results, it will be revealing to see how design elements and motifs as well as ceramic production practices from sites located closer to the periphery reflect that proximity. These preliminary results suggest that these villages lacked a cohesive community of practice, with potters perhaps working independently in making pottery. It is possible that the rate and timing of production was so low that even individual potters varied their practice from year to year. These results have interesting implications for how and when communities of practice develop.
Last Modified: 06/01/2020
Modified by: Jacqueline M Kocer
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