Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Status Differentiation in Mobile Traditional Societies

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This archaeological project is designed to study the early rise of inequality, privilege, and elite standing among nomadic pastoral populations. This research is pertinent to the anthropological investigation of how social differentiation between individuals and groups came about in the history of our species and how these earliest social structures may have set precedents for the kinds of extreme inequalities seen in modern day societies. Moreover, the research focuses on communities of people who moved seasonally with their herd animals and, according to anthropological theories, are not expected to indigenously manifest inequality and social hierarchy. Rather, pastoral nomads generally live in marginal environments with risk-prone subsistence systems and therefore are expected to form corporate communities that share resources and information broadly. These expectations raise questions about the massive stone monuments, known as "khirigsuurs," that mark the Mongolian steppe during the Bronze Age and which many researchers have attributed to the personal aggrandizement of nomadic "elite" chiefs and warriors. This study seeks to investigate the degree to which inequality and social differentiation may have been responsible for the building of these impressive labor intensive monuments or, on the other hand, whether these structures were built as a way to create community solidarity and cohesion. These issues are pertinent to the understanding of social inequality today and whether such differentiation should be seen as a "natural" expression of society or as systems constructed by human beings based on social precedents from many millennia ago. This project will also train US and Mongolian students in field methods and research strategies for archaeological anthropology. In order to test the different explanations for monument building among Bronze Age nomads in Mongolia, the Tarvagatai Project employs systematic pedestrian survey and excavation of monument and habitation sites. Analysis of animal bones, site sizes, bronze metallurgy, isotopic signatures, and high resolution radiocarbon chronology will help archaeologists to differentiate between different hypotheses for the construction of "khirigsuur" monuments. In addition, the Tarvagatai research will develop and employ new laser scanning methods for the analysis of skeletal deformations in ancient horse skulls in order to determine whether horse riding and traction may have contributed to early social differentiation among nomads. These novel methods will not only help archaeologists to explain the presence of horse burials in monumental construction but will also help to solve the mystery of when human beings first began riding horses on the Mongolian steppe.