Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Food And Social Complexity

The study of social inequality in past societies has helped archeologists understand the development of social structures. Earlier civilizations with sociopolitical hierarchies often had complex infrastructure designed to organize movement of people and resources. For example, impressive constructions like temple pyramids and causeways, connected local residents to important buildings while also legitimizing the authority of governing entities or individual rulers.

Sociopolitical powers also influence the way natural resources are supplied to a population. The doctoral dissertation project examines social differentiation in households through the recovery and analysis of animal bones at a site in an early stage of social complexity development. Examining animal (faunal) remains, which primarily survive in archaeology as bones, help to determine if these products were unevenly allocated within residences during the period of initial urbanization in the region.

This project contributes to ongoing discussions on the origins of states by outlining the cooperative nature of an archaic state. The research thus highlights dynamics of an ancient community by studying the way neighborhoods were organized demarcating unity and hierarchy. This project supports the training of a doctoral student from an underrepresented minority in the sciences.

Animal bones in archaeological deposits are often interpreted as preserved remnants of animals that people consumed in the past. This study aids in answering the central question of whether status differentiation in the form of elite to nonelite members (commoners) at the site were clearly defined through diet. By analyzing patterns in species distribution, the project will: (1) identify amounts of local and non-local animals; (2) reveal the presence or absence of difficult to acquire vs. common organisms; and (3) determine the quantity of dissimilar proportions of fauna amongst households.

The doctoral student will excavate several household structures and their refuse disposals. Faunal samples will be catalogued, weighed, and counted using common zooarchaeological quantification units. Quantitative data will be statistically analyzed and graphically modeled.

Coupling this zooarchaeological investigation with examinations of household structural design and building material, residential location, and associated artifacts is essential to being able to recognize social identities among the prehistoric people. Such an approach also provides contextual support for social inequality in an ancient population while furthering the progressive understanding of a contemporary and relevant issue: socioeconomic control over the distribution of natural resources.

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.