Development of Social Complexity in a Tropical Environment

This project considers the environmental and social strategies processes underpinning the transition from hunting and gathering to farming in a dense forest tropical context. Previous research in the region has focused mainly on larger sites with monumental architecture, but the recent application of airborne laser scanning now allows for the study of the smallest sites that represent the earliest agricultural settlements in the region. This archaeological investigation focuses on understanding not only the strategies used to establish these earliest settlements, but to understand how they changed over time before they were ultimately abandoned. The archaeological perspective thus allows for a full accounting of how small-scale communities form, evolve, and dissolve over multiple centuries. A top priority for this project is also to educate undergraduate students from a Hispanic and minority serving institution in scientific research methodologies. Student project assistants benefit tremendously from the high-impact practices of fieldwork and professional collaboration. Additionally, the project collects data on smaller archaeological sites and features to help protect them against ongoing demographic and environmental changes in the region. Another key focus of the project is to work with students to bridge the divide between academia and a broader audience interested in understanding the origins of modern society through the use of public-facing media. Recent advances in airborne laser scanning technology now allow for the identification of the smallest-scale earliest settlements in the region that were not covered by constructions from later archaeological periods. Understanding how the region was first settled by farmers can provide critical insights into the origins of social complexity because the region lacks any natural surface water resources that could be expected to sustain a year-round presence. The project is well placed to make significant advances toward understanding how people adapted to challenging environments that likely required new forms of social organization. What sorts of environmental and social strategies did the earliest agricultural settlers use to gain a permanent foothold in the region? What factors led to the eventual abandonment of these earliest settlements 500 years later? This project contributes to broader understandings of the agricultural techniques, water management infrastructure, and socio-political organization needed to successfully maintain year-round settlements in a tropical forest environment. 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.