Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Role of Migration in Social Complexity

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

Ms. Katie Richards and Dr. Andrew Duff, of Washington State University, will explore how identity is created, maintained, and expressed in frontier zones as they explore the origins and social organization of a native pre-Hispanic group, referred to today as Fremont, They lived across much of what is today the state of Utah. Archaeologists have studied the Fremont for over a century; however, there is still considerable debate over who the Fremont were and where they came from. This project will address fundamental, big-picture questions about Fremont to help create a new foundational understanding about this group. Located at the northern fringes of the more densely populated North American Southwest, the Fremont region is ideally situated to explore how identity was negotiated and created in prehistoric frontier zones. The academic debate over who the Fremont were has also proved a stumbling block to educators teaching Utah state history. Little information on the Fremont has been published for a public audience. Ms. Richards will work with 4th grade teachers (the year when Utah state history is taught) to create lesson plans that will help educators more effectively teach about Utah’s priceless cultural heritage and prehistory. Ms. Richards and Dr. Duff will use pottery to explore Fremont origins, social organization, and identity in this northern frontier of the North American Southwest. Frontier studies provide a dynamic and powerful way to explore how identity is formed, negotiated, and maintained in regions where disparate traditions meet, and will be used to explore the complex blend of innovation and tradition present in Fremont material culture. Using both high- and low- technology methods, the researchers will use a multi-scalar approach to better understand Fremont. At the broadest scale, the researchers will evaluate how Fremont fits into the larger history of the American Southwest. Using attributes of Fremont and Southwestern pottery, they will explore potential origins of the Fremont ceramic tradition and assess whether painted ceramic technology was brought into the region as a result of migration or was a locally produced emulation. They will then use instrumental neutron activation analysis to chemically characterize Fremont pottery and reconstruct Fremont production and exchange networks at a regional scale. At the finest scale, they will explore how painted ceramics were used within villages across the region. Combined, these analyses will create a robust and more complete understanding of complexity and origins in this frontier zone. 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.