Collaborative Research: Drivers of Variation in Social Organization

About This Grant

Scientists have long been interested in the ways that populations organize themselves and change over time. Previous research demonstrates that people and groups make choices about systems of organization based on many variables, including availability of resources, environmental stability and fertility, established traditions, and newly emerging practices. This collaborative project conducts research to explore the impact of environment and resource use on long-term changes in social organization, including questions about if, when, how, and why groups developed stratified societies. The project findings advance knowledge and theory about what variables have predominant influence in the evolution of social organization. The study’s use of macro- and microbotanical analytical techniques (including phytolith analysis of soil samples, analyses of starch granules and phytoliths extracted from dental calculus, and integrative microbotanical and stable isotope analysis) advance administrative priorities for investments in understanding the adoption of biotechnological innovations in scientific research. The project also provides training for graduate students in these analytical and other archaeological methods. The team investigates how environmental conditions changed and influenced choices about social organization across thousands of years, examining whether different environments (i.e., cloud forest vs. dry grassland) may have promoted different choices and opportunities that led to different organizational structures and strategies. The team excavates key locations to collect evidence of site occupation and use, and to reconstruct the environmental legacy of a river valley through specialized analyses of human, animal, and plant remains and remote sensing of the valley. Through these methods, the team tests if the environment afforded more flexibility and options in the choices that people could make about resource acquisition and use, especially when compared with other sites from the same period. 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.