Learning representations in Bayesian Confidence Propagation neural networks

Unsupervised learning of hierarchical representations has been one of the most vibrant research directions in deep learning during recent years. In this work we study biologically inspired unsupervised strategies in neural networks based on local Hebbian learning. We propose new mechanisms to extend the Bayesian Confidence Propagating Neural Network (BCPNN) architecture, and demonstrate their capability for unsupervised learning of salient hidden representations when tested on the MNIST dataset

Visual recency bias is explained by a mixture model of internal representations.

Human bias towards more recent events is a common and well-studied phenomenon. Recent studies in visual perception have shown that this recency bias persists even when past events contain no information about the future. Reasons for this suboptimal behavior are not well understood and the internal model that leads people to exhibit recency bias is unknown. Here we use a well-known orientation estimation task to frame the human recency bias in terms of incremental Bayesian inference. We show that the only Bayesian model capable of explaining the recency bias relies on a weighted mixture of past states. Furthermore, we suggest that this mixture model is a consequence of participants' failure to infer a model for data in visual short-term memory, and reflects the nature of the internal representations used in the task

Human lifeways in Late Roman and Medieval Europe

The investigation of past human lifeways, which include subsistence practices, infant feeding strategies, small regional movements, and/or broader migrations, leads to obtaining a palimpsest of information on multiple and interconnected historical variables that engage with ancient societies. Even in modern times, how people behave in quotidian aspects can be associated with a shared system of values that is influenced by economic organisation, political agenda, social status, technological level, cultural views, ethics and religion. For example, nutrition is a biological necessity that grants the organism to grow, survive, and reproduce, but the varying consumption of different foods is, in most cases, driven by complex human choices. Also infant feeding practices are a particular aspect of nutrition. Infants cannot provide nourishment for themselves but they have to rely on their parents' choices, including how and when being breastfed. Breastmilk is a safe and easily digestible source of calories and macronutrients for neonates but when this is lacking or reduced to a short time, neonates may face serious health issues. Weaning is the process that involves breastmilk paired with complementary food. Breastfeeding and weaning timings are nowadays an important research topic in archaeology, considering that these may vary significantly across sites or even families, following a mixture of cultural norms, economic affordability and medical knowledge. Human and animal spatial mobility at different geographic scales may also impact human subsistence practices plus other lifeway aspects that are shared in a given community. Smaller regional movements at individual level may be associated with socio-economic phenomena, whereas broader mass migrations may instead affect local cultural traditions, bring in new technologies, religions and political systems, and adapt to novel farming economies. This cumulative dissertation includes multiple scientific publications with the aim of exploring spatiotemporal shifts in human lifeways across late Roman and medieval Europe. Given the existence of multiple historical variables, a higher resolution in reconstructing past human lifeways can be obtained through a transdisciplinary multi-proxy approach. Whenever disparate proxies are available, these can be compared and contrasted. This is particularly applicable to Roman and medieval Europe, given that a high level of archaeological preservation is often paired with a large number of written documents and treaties. In addition, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and bioarchaeological studies for these periods are increasing and this provides hence the possibility of exploring high-resolution diachronic and synchronic changes in diet, resource management, and spatial mobility. During the period interested by this dissertation, i.e. Late Roman to late Medieval (c. third-fifteenth centuries), several historical events affected European regions at different rates and scales. Political transitions can be observed in reunification attempts made after the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire, such as the Carolingian (751-919 CE) and Holy Roman (962-1806 CE) empires. Moreover, new ‘proto-national’ kingdoms were established. The migration of several Germanic and Slavic tribes interested Europe at least for the whole Late Antique and Early Middle Ages (broadly 300-1000 CE). This created a combination of socio-cultural and legislative systems based on the previous Roman substrate and adapted to shared traditions from these incoming populations. Religions, their denominations and multiple dogmatic aspects (e.g. fasting rules) also had a central role in Late Roman and Medieval society. From Charlemagne’s coronation on Christmas night in 800 CE, the most effective temporal power expressed by a religious head was that of the Pope, who played a role of balance and sometimes of leadership among Christian states. Other particular dynamics involved climatic events on a limited temporal range (e.g. the volcanic winter of 536) or on a broader scale (e.g. the Medieval Warm Period). Finally, pandemics such as the ‘Justinian Plague’ (541-544 CE) or the ‘Black Death’ (1346-1353 CE) also are well documented historical events that impacted European societies. All of the above historical developments marked this age as an extremely heterogeneous period in European history and, for this reason, synchronic and diachronic shifts in past human diets, infant feeding practices, animal and crop management strategies, and spatial mobility are expected to reflect these events. A large array of archaeological methods can nowadays be employed to detect these shifts. In this dissertation, stable isotope analysis is used as the main research proxy and combined with other sources of evidence to obtain the highest resolution available. Stable isotope ratios measured on osteological human or animal remains, and on charred plant organic samples, have been used in archaeology to answer multiple archaeological questions. These include, but are not limited to, the reconstruction of human diets, the investigation of animal and crop management practices, the recognition of probable dwelling places for given individuals, and/or the inspection of breastfeeding and weaning timings in past populations. As such, human lifeways were here approached through ‘Big Data’ collections, meta-analyses, Bayesian modelling, and newly generated measurements. Also non-isotopic proxies were employed, as several forms of archaeological evidence can be included in a model to increase the accuracy and precision of the reconstruction. Using this transdisciplinary, multi-proxy, and multi-scale approach, changes in human subsistence practices, infant feeding strategies, and spatial mobility were detected both at regional level (e.g. archaeological sites) and following broader spatiotemporal coordinates. An important point within this work is hence the multi-scale approach. Depending on the research question, an analysis can be carried out at different scales. ‘Big Data’ meta-analyses can in fact attest shifts and/or the spread of given archaeological data that are otherwise invisible or underestimated at site level. Different scales can provide for different resolutions and interpretative limitations. In particular, the wider the scale, the higher is the possibility of observing how human lifeways shifted (or did not) across a more restricted number of historical variables. A ‘Big Data’ meta-analysis reduces in fact the impact of diverging behaviours on the final interpretation, hence allowing the detection of main trends. Novel statistical models have been recently proposed to investigate these. Developing machine learning programs and artificial intelligence implementations will also likely allow refining historical correlations. However, this is valid whenever a chosen scale is adequate to the amount and typology of data that is available. In this dissertation, some of the ‘Big Data’ spatio-temporal Bayesian options available from https://isomemoapp.com/ (IsoMemo) were presented here for the first time. Moreover, the use of the latest version of FRUITS (now ReSources), a Bayesian dietary mixing model, was also introduced as a potential high-resolution application of Bayesian softwares on different scales. In addition, the model OsteoBioR was employed on a selected case study to compare infant feeding practices on a local scale. Publications composing this cumulative dissertation are preceded by an extensive introduction on human lifeways, stable isotopes, Bayesian modelling tools, database production and brief summary of the articles. Conclusive thoughts, constraints of the project, and future research directions are also included. This dissertation consists of six articles. Three of these relate to database production and these are: 1) Amalthea, a database for incremental dentine stable isotope analysis; 2) the Tooth formation age dataset for early childhood bioarchaeological and medical studies, a non-isotopic database that can be used as a reference for addressing early childhood diets; 3) the Compendium Isotoporum Medii Aevi (CIMA), a database collecting all isotopic measurements on human, faunal and plant samples from medieval Europe (more than 50000). As a general rule, data collections can highlight research gaps and provide for large data archives that can be used to compare new measurements. However, as mentioned, these compilations can provide for large scale spatiotemporal data meta-analyses concerning diet, farming economies, spatial mobility and infant feeding practices. Preliminary results have shown potential links between shifts in human lifeways trends and historical developments during the late Roman and medieval ages. This is also enhanced by the designing of a well-characterised metadata structure that includes several archaeological, historical, and biological variables. For example, shifting human dietary practices compared across imperial, late antique, and early medieval Rome were associated with demographic decrease, collapse of the political and economic Roman structure, and new adaptative farming economies. A large regional dietary variability was also observed on an European scale, suggesting that different climates, environments, political agenda, socio-economic systems, and cultural traditions had different impacts on human communities. An additional ‘Big Data’ meta-analysis using Bayesian modelling of pollen variables on a continental scale was also included in this dissertation. This showed how mortality rates of the Black Death were overestimated in the historiographic reconstruction. Two selected case studies also compose this dissertation. These allowed observing shifting human lifeways on a local scale. Here, stable isotopes and Bayesian modelling options could be employed to explore past infant feeding practices in the Roman site of Bainesse (UK), and human diets, farming economies, and spatial mobility in southern Italy. These case-studies revealed smaller intra- and inter-site variations that suggested the existence of multiple local variables influencing human lifeways. For example, in Roman Bainesse (UK), some striking correlation between ancient medical recommendations and infant feeding practices as revealed through isotopes, suggested that the former could have been known, even at the northern frontier of the Roman empire. This is likely linked to military and commercial mobility in the area. However, the completion age of weaning varied across individuals and this still indicates that given choices could be influenced by other factors. This was associated with family traditions and/or socio-economic status. In Tertiveri (Italy), a moderate consumption of C4 plants (likely millet) detected through isotopes is an interesting anomaly in respect to what is observed from other archaeological indicators in the region. This was connected to a local economy based on transhumance routes. Moreover, historical developments, likely linked with military expeditions, were associated with mobile individuals found in Tertiveri, who appear to have travelled from outside the region. Overall, this dissertation proved that, at different scales and using multiple proxies, human lifeways in late Roman and medieval Europe were extremely heterogeneous. This was expected at site level, as many local variables and single human choices can influence subsistence practices, farming economies, infant feeding strategies, and mobility patterns. However, preliminary ‘Big Data’ Bayesian meta-analyses carried out on large volumes of isotopic data and combined with known evidence obtained from zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, anthropology, and written sources have revealed this point as valid even on a wider scale. This is not necessarily an a priori consequence of differences in the local scale, given that large human trends would overshadow smaller local differences. More likely, this instead confirms that human societies are impacted as a whole by main historical developments and environmental differences. This indicates hence that human lifeways do not only respond to biological inputs. At the state of the arts, it is hard to estimate which historical and/or environmental variables impacted late Roman and Medieval human lifeways the most. A direction to follow will be that of including into the analysis machine learning softwares applied to ‘Big Data’. Future research concerning Roman and Medieval Europe and its margins is therefore suggested to employ a similar multi-scale and multi-proxy transdisciplinary approach to investigate human lifeways.Die Untersuchung vergangener menschlicher Lebensweisen, zu denen Subsistenzpraktiken, Ernährungsstrategien für Kleinkinder, kleine regionale Bewegungen und/oder größere Migrationen gehören, führt zu einem Palimpsest von Informationen über vielfältige und miteinander verknüpfte historische Variablen, die sich mit alten Gesellschaften befassen. Selbst in der Neuzeit kann das alltägliche Verhalten der Menschen mit einem gemeinsamen Wertesystem in Verbindung gebracht werden, das von wirtschaftlicher Organisation, politischer Agenda, sozialem Status, technologischem Niveau, kulturellen Ansichten, Ethik und Religion beeinflusst wird. So ist zum Beispiel die Ernährung eine biologische Notwendigkeit, die dem Organismus Wachstum, Überleben und Fortpflanzung ermöglicht. Der unterschiedliche Verzehr verschiedener Nahrungsmittel wird aber in den meisten Fällen durch komplexe menschliche Entscheidungen bestimmt. Auch die Ernährung von Säuglingen ist ein besonderer Aspekt der Ernährung. Säuglinge können sich nicht selbst ernähren, sondern sind auf die Entscheidungen ihrer Eltern angewiesen, unter anderem darauf, wie und wann sie gestillt werden. Muttermilch ist eine sichere und leicht verdauliche Kalorien- und Makronährstoffquelle für Neugeborene. Doch wenn sie fehlt oder auf eine kurze Zeit reduziert wird, können Neugeborene ernsthafte gesundheitliche Probleme bekommen. Bei der Entwöhnung wird die Muttermilch mit Beikost kombiniert. Die Still- und Entwöhnungszeiten sind heutzutage ein wichtiges Forschungsthema in der Archäologie, da sie von Fundort zu Fundort und sogar von Familie zu Familie stark variieren können. Dies ist auf eine Mischung aus kulturellen Normen, wirtschaftlicher Erschwinglichkeit und medizinischem Wissen zurückzuführen. Die räumliche Mobilität von Menschen und Tieren auf verschiedenen geografischen Ebenen kann sich auch auf die menschlichen Subsistenzpraktiken und andere Aspekte der Lebensweise auswirken, die in einer bestimmten Gemeinschaft geteilt werden. Kleinere regionale Bewegungen auf individueller Ebene können mit sozioökonomischen Phänomenen in Verbindung gebracht werden, während breitere Massenmigrationen stattdessen lokale kulturelle Traditionen beeinflussen, neue Technologien, Religionen und politische Systeme einführen und sich an neue landwirtschaftliche Wirtschaftsformen anpassen können. Diese und weitere Fragestellungen können u. a. mit Hilfe der Analyse stabiler Isotope beantwortet werden. Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation umfasst insgesamt sechs wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen sowie in der Einleitung weitere bislang unpublizierte Daten. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, raum-zeitliche Verschiebungen in der menschlichen Lebensweise im spätrömischen und mittelalterlichen Europa zu untersuchen. Dabei fokusiert diese Dissertation auf einen grundlegenden Aspekt der Lebensweise - die Ernährungsweise der Menschen. Außerdem wird auch die Mobilität im Raum angesprochen. Angesichts der Existenz zahlreicher historischer Variablen kann eine höhere Auflösung bei der Rekonstruktion vergangener menschlicher Lebensweisen durch einen transdisziplinären Multi-Proxy-Ansatz erreicht werden. Wann immer unterschiedliche Proxies verfügbar sind, können diese verglichen und gegenübergestellt werden. Dies gilt insbesondere für das römische und mittelalterliche Europa, da ein hohes Maß an archäologischer Erhaltung oft mit einer großen Menge an schriftlichen Dokumenten und Verträgen einhergeht. Darüber hinaus nehmen archäobotanische, zooarchäologische und bioarchäologische Studien für diese Zeiträume zu, was die Möglichkeit bietet, hochauflösende diachrone und synchrone Veränderungen der Ernährung, des Ressourcenmanagements und der räumlichen Mobilität zu untersuchen. Während des Zeitraums, der für diese Dissertation von Interesse ist, d. h. von der spätrömischen Zeit bis zum späten Mittelalter (ca. viertes bis fünfzehntes Jahrhundert), wirkten sich mehrere historische Ereignisse in unterschiedlichem Tempo und Ausmaß auf europäische Regionen aus. Politische Übergänge lassen sich an den Wiedervereinigungsversuchen nach dem Untergang des westlichen Teils des Römischen Reiches beobachten, wie z. B. das Karolingerreich (751-919 n. Chr.) und das Heilige Römische Reich (962-1806 n. Chr.). Darüber hinaus wurden neue „proto-nationale“ Königreiche gegründet. Die Einwanderung verschiedener germanischer und – später – slawischer Stämme prägte Europa zumindest in der gesamten Spätantike und im frühen Mittelalter (im Wesentlichen 300-1000 n. Chr.). Dies führte zu einer Kombination aus soziokulturellen und rechtlichen Systemen, die auf dem früheren römischen Substrat basierten und an die gemeinsamen Traditionen dieser neuen Völker angepasst wurden. Auch die Religionen, ihre Konfessionen und zahlreiche dogmatische Aspekte (z. B. Fastenregeln) spielten in der spätrömischen und mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft eine zentrale Rolle. Seit der Krönung Karls des Großen in der Weihnachtsnacht des Jahres 800 war die wirksamste weltliche Macht, die von einem religiösen Oberhaupt ausgeübt wurde, die des Papstes, der eine ausgleichende und manchmal auch eine führende Rolle unter den christlichen Staaten spielte. Andere besondere Dynamiken betrafen klimatische Ereignisse von begrenzter zeitlicher Reichweite (z. B. der Vulkanwinter von 536) oder von größerem Ausmaß (z. B. die mittelalterliche Warmzeit). Schließlich sind auch Pandemien wie die „Justinianische Pest“ (541-544) oder der „Schwarze Tod“ (1346-1353) gut dokumentierte historische Ereignisse, die die europäischen Gesellschaften nachhaltig beeinflussten. Alle oben genannten historischen Entwicklungen kennzeichnen dieses Zeitalter als eine äußerst heterogene Periode in der europäischen Geschichte, und aus diesem Grund wird erwartet, dass synchrone und diachrone Verschiebungen in den früheren menschlichen Ernährungsgewohnheiten, in der Kinderernährung, in den Strategien der Tier- und Pflanzenhaltung und in der räumlichen Mobilität diese Ereignisse widerspiegeln. Heutzutage kann eine breite Palette archäologischer Methoden eingesetzt werden, um diese Veränderungen nachzuweisen. In dieser Dissertation wird die Analyse stabiler Isotope als wichtigstes Forschungsmittel eingesetzt und mit anderen Beweismitteln kombiniert, um die größtmögliche Auflösung zu erzielen. Stabile Isotopenverhältnisse, die an osteologischen menschlichen oder tierischen Überresten und an verkohlten organischen Pflanzenproben gemessen wurden, sind in der Archäologie zur Beantwortung zahlreicher archäologischer Fragen verwendet worden. Dazu gehören u. a. die Rekonstruktion menschlicher Ernährungsgewohnheiten, die Untersuchung von Praktiken der Tierhaltung und des Pflanzenanbaus, das Erkennen wahrscheinlicher Wohnorte bestimmter Individuen und/oder die Untersuchung von Still- und Entwöhnungszeiten in früheren Bevölkerungen. Die menschlichen Lebenswege wurden hier durch „Big Data“-Sammlungen, Meta-Analysen, Bayes‘sche Modellierung und umfangreiche eigene Isotopenanalysen untersucht. Es wurden auch nicht-isotopische Proxies verwendet, da mehrere Formen archäologischer Beweise in ein Modell einbezogen werden können, um die Genauigkeit und Präzision der Rekonstruktion zu erhöhen. Mithilfe dieses transdisziplinären, Multi-Proxy- und Multiskalen-Ansatzes konnten Veränderungen in den menschlichen Subsistenzpraktiken, den Ernährungsstrategien für Kleinkinder und der räumlichen Mobilität sowohl auf regionaler Ebene (z. B. spezifische archäologische Fundorte) als auch in größeren räumlich-zeitlichen Koordinaten nachgewiesen werden. Ein wichtiger Punkt in dieser Arbeit ist daher der Multiskalenansatz. Je nach Forschungsfrage kann eine Analyse auf verschiedenen Skalen durchgeführt werden. Big-Data-Meta-Analysen können in der Tat Verschiebungen und/oder die Verbreitung bestimmter archäologischer Daten belegen, die ansonsten auf Standortebene unsichtbar sind oder unterschätzt werden. Unterschiedliche Maßstäbe können zu unterschiedlichen Auflösungen und Interpretationseinschränkungen führen. Je größer der Maßstab, desto größer ist die Möglichkeit zu beobachten, wie sich menschliche Lebensweisen über eine begrenzte Anzahl historischer Variablen hinweg verändert haben (oder auch nicht). Eine „Big Data“-Meta-Analyse verringert die Auswirkungen abweichender Verhaltensweisen auf die endgültige Interpretation und ermöglicht somit die Erkennung der wichtigsten Trends. Kürzlich wurden neuartige statistische Modelle vorgeschlagen, um diese zu untersuchen. Die Entwicklung von Programmen für maschinelles Lernen und die Implementierung künstlicher Intelligenz wird es wahrscheinlich auch ermöglichen, historische Korrelationen zu verfeinern. Dies gilt jedoch immer dann, wenn die gewählte Skala der Menge und Art der verfügbaren Daten angemessen ist. In dieser Dissertation wurden einige der räumlich-zeitlichen Bayes'schen „Big Data“-Optionen von https://isomemoapp.com/ (IsoMemo) zum ersten Mal vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus wurde die Verwendung der neuesten Version von FRUITS (jetzt ReSources), einem Bayes‘schen Ernährungsmischungsmodell, als mögliche hochauflösende Anwendung von Bay

Artificial general intelligence: Proceedings of the Second Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI 2009, Arlington, Virginia, USA, March 6-9, 2009

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research focuses on the original and ultimate goal of AI – to create broad human-like and transhuman intelligence, by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies. Due to the difficulty of this task, for the last few decades the majority of AI researchers have focused on what has been called narrow AI – the production of AI systems displaying intelligence regarding specific, highly constrained tasks. In recent years, however, more and more researchers have recognized the necessity – and feasibility – of returning to the original goals of the field. Increasingly, there is a call for a transition back to confronting the more difficult issues of human level intelligence and more broadly artificial general intelligence

Measuring, monitoring, and maintaining memories in a partially observable mind

Visual memory holds in mind details of objects, textures, faces, and scenes. After initial exposure to an image, however, visual memories rapidly degrade because they are transferred from iconic memory, a high-capacity sensory buffer, to working memory, a low-capacity maintenance system. How does visual memory maintenance work? This dissertation builds the argument that the maintenance of short-term visual memories is analogous to the act of breathing: it is a dynamic process with a default behavior that explains much of its usual workings, but which can be observed, overridden, and controlled. Chapter 1 shows how the act of trying to remember more information causes people to forget faster and to remember less ("load-dependent forgetting" and "overreaching"). It then shows how the paradigm of evolution can be applied to the problem of maintenance, with memories competing over a limited memory-supporting commodity, explaining these effects. Chapter 2 presents experiments on metamemory, the ability of people to observe and make decisions about their own memories. The experiments isolate a component of metamemory that monitors a memory's quality as it degrades over time. Chapter 3 connects memory to metamemory, drawing on work from reinforcement learning and decision theory to liken the problem of memory maintenance to that of an agent who sequentially decides what to prioritize in a partially observable mind.Psycholog

The Cultural Landscape & Heritage Paradox; Protection and Development of the Dutch Archeological-Historical Landscape and its European Dimension

To what extent can we know past and mainly invisible landscapes, and how we can use this still hidden knowledge for actual sustainable management of landscape’s cultural and historical values. It has also been acknowledged that heritage management is increasingly about ‘the management of future change rather than simply protection’. This presents us with a paradox: to preserve our historic environment, we have to collaborate with those who wish to transform it and, in order to apply our expert knowledge, we have to make it suitable for policy and society. The answer presented by the Protection and Development of the Dutch Archaeological-Historical Landscape programme (pdl/bbo) is an integrative landscape approach which applies inter- and transdisciplinarity, establishing links between archaeological-historical heritage and planning, and between research and policy. This is supported by two unifying concepts: ‘biography of landscape’ and ‘action research’. This approach focuses upon the interaction between knowledge, policy and an imagination centered on the public. The European perspective makes us aware of the resourcefulness of the diversity of landscapes, of social and institutional structures, of various sorts of problems, approaches and ways forward. In addition, two related issues stand out: the management of knowledge creation for landscape research and management, and the prospects for the near future. Underlying them is the imperative that we learn from the past ‘through landscape’

Global Literary Studies

This book sets the grounds for Global Literary Studies as an emergent field. It innovatively looks at cross-border cultural phenomena through the concepts of space, scale, time, connectivity and agency, channeling the cross-fertilization of ideas across 4 lines: global translation flows, the global novel, global literary environments and global cinema. The book targets readers interested in a global critical approach in the humanities and beyond

Risk Management in Environment, Production and Economy

The term "risk" is very often associated with negative meanings. However, in most cases, many opportunities can present themselves to deal with the events and to develop new solutions which can convert a possible danger to an unforeseen, positive event. This book is a structured collection of papers dealing with the subject and stressing the importance of a relevant issue such as risk management. The aim is to present the problem in various fields of application of risk management theories, highlighting the approaches which can be found in literature

Surviving Collapse: Collective Memory and Political Reorganization at Actuncan, Belize

This dissertation focuses on a study of political reorganization at the ancient Maya site of Actuncan, Belize following the 9th century collapse of Classic Maya society. During the Terminal Classic period (A.D. 780–1000), Maya divine kingship was gradually abandoned, leading to increased warfare, regional food scarcity, and mass migration. In contrast to broader trends, the residents of Actuncan did not leave. In this dissertation, I draw on the theoretical frameworks of resilience theory and collective memory to explain why Actuncan was not abandoned and how the local community reorganized its political and ritual institutions after the failure of divine kingship. I base my arguments on excavation, artefactual, and chemical data from Group 4, a civic center, and low platforms in Plaza A, all of which were built entirely during the Terminal Classic period. These data allow me to explore how the people of Actuncan reorganized their political and ritual institutions in the aftermath of the Maya collapse. To consider the specific circumstances that led to Actuncan’s Terminal Classic renaissance, I frame the site’s reorganization in the terms of resilience theory and collective memory. Resilience theory provides a useful way to organize the complex processes concerning the collapse of Maya society. I draw on the resilience theory to develop four alternate hypotheses for Actuncan’s Terminal Classic organization. Evidence for the form and function of Group 4 was matched to testable correlates associated with possible hierarchical, corporate, mercantile, or ritual underpinnings of Actuncan’s new political organization. While resilience theory provides an outline of options that communities might have taken as they reorganized their societies, I draw on collective memory as a tool to understand why they made the choices they did. To do this, I trace Actuncan’s social and political history through a reconstruction of the site’s urban development to understand how the local community remembered their past. My excavations in Plaza A targeted evidence for Terminal Classic activity in a space originally constructed a millennium earlier by the site’s Late Preclassic rulers. My methods focused on collecting three scales of data that contributed to understanding how and why Actuncan’s community was reorganized. At the middle scale, Group 4’s architectural form was uncovered through over 400 m2 of horizontal excavations. Based on a comparison to other examples of Maya civic architecture, these data indicate that Group 4 was built to support a corporate ideology. At the small scale, I collected samples for soil chemistry and microartifact analysis from across the surface of Group 4. Based on these data, I identified evidence for food preparation and consumption. I argue that Group 4 was a council, or popol nah, and the center of a corporate form of authority. At the largest scale, I aimed to reconstruct changes in the organization and function of Actuncan’s public spaces during the Terminal Classic period. First, my excavations in Plaza A targeted low platforms to test whether they were constructed during the Terminal Classic period. In combination with other data collected by James McGovern in the 1990s and my colleague on the Actuncan Archaeological Project, I reconstructed Actuncan’s political and household histories. Together, these data indicate that the Terminal Classic community at Actuncan transformed Actuncan’s site core to focus ritual attention on the site’s most distant past. In the part of the site around Group 4, old buildings were dismantled or desecrated. My results indicate that Group 4 was constructed as a council house that was the seat of new inclusive political institutions. I suggest that the strategies enacted by the community and the council were a direct repudiation of the failed autocratic power of Classic period kings. I conclude that the community separated the ritual and political aspects of life. Not only were leaders no longer divine, but religious practice was physically separated from the political infrastructure. I argue the community’s inclusive reorganization drew on the memory of the site’s own Preclassic shared leadership structure and the latent power of commoner lineage heads

Assembling States: Community Formation And The Emergence Of The Inca Empire

This dissertation investigates the processes through which the Inca state emerged in the south-central Andes, ca. 1400 CE in Cusco, Peru, an area that was to become the political center of the largest indigenous empire in the Western hemisphere. Many approaches to this topic over the past several decades have framed state formation in a social evolutionary framework, a perspective that has come under increasing critique in recent years. I argue that theoretical attempts to overcome these problems have been ultimately confounded, and in order to resolve these contradictions, an ontological shift is needed. I adopt a relational perspective towards approaching the emergence of the Inca state – in particular, that of assemblage theory. Treating states and other complex social entities as assemblages means understanding them as open-ended and historically individuated phenomena, emerging from centuries or millennia of sociopolitical, cultural, and material engagements with the human and non-human world, and constituted over the longue durée. This means that understanding the emergence of the Inca state, and the historically contingent form it took, requires investigating the transformations of local and regional communities in the Cusco heartland. The multiscalar nature of this type of investigation also demands an examination of processes occurring at particular local communities through time. To resolve this, I directed excavations at the archaeological site of Minaspata, located in the Lucre Basin in the southeastern part of the Cusco region, followed by analyses of the material remains recovered from the site. These include fine-grained investigations of the ceramic patterns, the faunal and macrobotanical remains, and the procurement of obsidian through long-distance exchange. By comparing these patterns to those of the larger Cusco region, an understanding of how the Cusco regional community cohered and broke apart at various points in time can be gained. This regional community eventually gave rise to the Inca state, providing the raw material for Inca projects of sovereignty and subject-making. Although the period before Inca emergence was marked by processes focused on the localization of community, the sociocultural and material frameworks established through complex histories of interaction over millennia enabled the Cusco region to reproduce itself as a self-recognizing, coherent social entity, a critical necessity for the emergence of Inca sovereignty