Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Origin of Multiethnic Communities

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This research addresses the development of multiethnic coexistence and the ways past societies effectively ordered and maintained contexts of social pluralism. In the globalized world today, many of cities and neighborhoods are vibrantly multiethnic, yet socially diverse communities are largely considered a fact of large, well-organized societies. Nevertheless, there is enough evidence for cases of multiethnic diversity in smaller, less-centralized societies to challenge this relationship and to question how groups of different levels of political complexity were able to effectively negotiate multiethnic coexistence. Archaeology is uniquely suited to address the long-term development of multiethnic societies, how they were ordered, and what sort of institutions were used to mitigate divisive and destructive forces which often plague inter-ethnic relations. In particular, by collecting data across periods when state-control was either suspended or in full-swing, this research will provide insights regarding the role of multi-ethnicity in a variety of political contexts, helping us better understand how different approaches to multiethnic coexistence may encourage stability or instead lead to hostility and conflict. Previous research has highlighted the political, often hostile nature of inter-ethnic interactions and the need for centralized judicial mechanisms for groups with diverse identities to peacefully live alongside one another. In this regard, states are considered uniquely suited to deal with inter-ethnic animosities through structural hierarchies and state-sponsored infrastructure which can control, channel, or suppress ongoing competition between ethnic groups, allowing different groups to live amongst one another as neighbors within the same city or in adjacent settlements. Alternatively, non-state societies are considered ill-equipped to manage inter-ethnic animosities, leading groups to instead live in exclusive, spatially segregated territories where inter-group conflict is an omnipresent threat. Under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Arkush of the University of Pittsburgh, doctoral candidate Ryan Smith will conduct full coverage pedestrian survey, intensive site mapping, and a program of systematic surface collections near the Lake Titicaca basin of southern Peru to understand changes in the ethnic landscape directly before and after the arrival of the Inca state in the area (AD 1000-1530). These investigations are specifically centered on an important transition zone between the high plains around Lake Titicaca and the eastern Andean piedmont, forming what has been described as a 'multiethnic frontier' where ethnic groups coexisted alongside one another under Inca control, if not earlier. This research will first test the hypothesis that state-level political organization was necessary for multiethnic coexistence, investigating whether multiethnicity appears prior to or after the arrival of the Inca state. Survey data will also allow researchers to test how multiethnicity was effectively ordered through addressing what institutions, organizational forms, or spatial frameworks were enacted and how these approaches to inter-group interaction differed between state and non-state societies. 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.