Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Establishment Of Social Ties In Traditional Rural Communities

The goal of this doctoral dissertation project is to study the development and expression of social identity in past rural social groups during times of social, religious, and political uncertainty. Previous scholarship on this topic has focused on the role of empires and social identity in shaping urbanism, material culture, economy, and local environment.

However, the relationship between rural and urban sites in the past is generally poorly understood. Better understanding of how remote social groups negotiated and expressed their identity during turbulent times can not only help understand the social landscape of historic areas but also understand social group identity maintenance in the present day rapidly globalizing world.

How does one "read" or understand expressions of social identity among ethnic groups as they occupy new regions, such as in the context of global refugee crises? Increased understanding of this topic holds potential for economy, politics, NGOs, and much more.

The research asks if it is possible learn about the social identity of those who produced an overlooked type of decorated pottery by studying the development, change, or continuity of the pottery over time and geography. Can one discern social signaling in their intentionally decorated pottery? What are the messages and who are the audiences?

Archaeology and material cultural analysis tempered with social theory are important inroads towards understanding the people who made the pottery, especially in the framework a large and diverse collection of pottery from carefully excavated and recorded stratigraphic contexts. The research will be conducted on hand-formed painted pottery at museums and archaeological collections, which will then be compared to an already-analyzed assemblage of similar pottery from an archaeological site located in a region remote from major urban centers, yet on an important trade route.

Combining data from archaeological sites, museums, and collections, this research will produce a dataset that will highlight the importance of vernacular hand-formed pottery. The researcher will apply material cultural analyses to critically address the large dataset this work will produce. The project will develop upon new material culture analytical methods while applying social network and statistical analysis to conduct comparative analyses groups in order to understand how similarities and differences in forming and decoration can reveal group expressions and affiliations at the local and regional scale.

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.