The GCAS is happy to introduce Thatcher Rogers of the University of New Mexico as one of two recipients of the GCAS's 2021 Nancy Coinman Grant Awards.
Thatcher is known to us from his past research regarding Dutch Ruin, New Mexico, for which he received a Nancy Coinman Grant Award for our 2018-2019 award cycle. He is now a second-year PhD candidate majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Statistics, working toward his PhD dissertation in Spring 2023. Following is Thatcher's description of his current research and his proposal for applying his Coinman Grant Award in furtherance of that research:
"The proposed project that a Nancy Coinman Grant Award would support is the geochemical compositional analysis through neutron activation analysis of 25 ceramic sherds from a late prehispanic site in far northeastern Sonora, Mexico. Neutron activation analysis is a robust way to compare the geochemical composition of ceramic artifacts to discern potential production locations for ceramic vessels and regional exchange networks. Through the analysis of these 25 ceramic sherds, I will be able to determine if late prehispanic people living at the site produced their own pottery or exchanged with nearby settlements. This is important as late prehispanic settlements in far northeastern Sonora are thought to have been integrated into the larger and socio-politically complex Casas Grandes regional system, the cultural core of which was at Paquimé (VanPool et al. 2005). By determining which communities interacting with this Sonoran site, I will be able to better understand regional networks and determine social relationships between sites in Sonora and others nearby, such as better studied villages in far southwestern New Mexico (e.g., Pendleton Ruin, Joyce Well).This project is part of my dissertation research which investigates relationships between inhabitants living in zones peripheral to cultural cores during the late prehispanic period along the contemporary United States-Mexico International Border. Unlike prior researchers who employed World Systems approaches (e.g., Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997; Jimenez Betts 2018; Smith and Berdan 2003), I apply recent, alternative theoretical models in culture contact studies. I employ the concepts of edge regions (Herr and Harry 2018) and the Cross-Cultural Interaction Model (Green and Costion 2018) to investigate these relationships without prefacing the cultural core. The application of both theoretical models enables a stronger understanding of interaction between the transference of cultural attributes and material goods between regions and ‘pull’ factors such as sociopolitical complexity and religious participation. This project expands my dissertation research that will be undertaken in 2021 and will improve my results by adding additional data from northeastern Sonora, an area with a poorly documented archaeological record.
The requested $1,000 award will cover neutron activation analysis of 25 ceramic specimens at the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). The rate of $40/specimen is based on a National Science Foundation award to MURR to promote research and is a discount from their standard rate. The total cost of the project will be covered with this funding, as the $1,000 grant would extend already funded components (see below) and provide important data from an additional site in Sonora.
The end result of the proposed project will include several presentations, at least three publications, and a dissertation. While the dissertation, which consists of three peer-reviewed journal publications, is expected to be complete in Spring 2023, presentations of the project results will be available end of year 2021.
My dissertation involves extensive coordination with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Cochise College, the Amerind Foundation, the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, the Center of Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia, and the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. As the project is sizable, procured funding sources include the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, the New Mexico Archeological Council, the Archaeological Society of New Mexico, the PaleoWest Foundation, and Graduate Studies and the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico with potential additional funding requests awaiting evaluation from the Wenner-Gren Foundation."
The GCAS is proud to support Thatcher Rogers's research. Congratulations, Thatcher!
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