SFI Omidyar Fellow Scott Ortman has received the Society for American Archaeology's 2011 Dissertation Award.
The award, for "Genes, Language, and Culture in Tewa Ethnogenesis, A.D. 1150-1400" (Arizona State University, 2010), is a multidisciplinary study of the depopulation of the Mesa Verde region and the origins of the Tewa People.
"Through meticulous study of archaeological material, skeletal remains, ethnography, and linguistic data, the author establishes that Tewa origins lay in a massive migration from the Mesa Verde region," reads the award citation. "This exodus likely stemmed from the rise of a religious movement against the increasing social hierarchy at Mesa Verde. To reconstruct Tewa ethnogenesis, the author traces Tewa biological, linguistic, and cultural inheritance, weaving diverse bodies of contemporary theory in multiple disciplines with original approaches, including a pioneering method for discerning conceptual metaphors in material culture. The dissertation exemplifies how a study focused on a particular question in prehistory can be a basis for a signal theoretical contribution to the anthropology of social change."
Also during the SAA's annual meeting in Sacremento, California, SFI President Jerry Sabloff received the Society's Award for Excellence in Latin American and Caribbean Archaeology.
More about the SAA awards
More about Scott Ortman's research