9408326 Alexander This Research Planning Grant permits Dr. Rani Alexander to conduct preliminary fieldwork and establish the basis for a larger more long-term project. In this first stage she will conduct an intensive archaeological survey of the site of Isla Cilvituk, located in Campeche, Mexico. The site dates to the Late Postclassic period (AD 1250-1521). During this interval, it was economically peripheral relative to the boundaries of the large Aztec empire to the west, to major waterborne trade routes and to the powerful Mayan polities to the North. Dr. Alexander wishes to examine how the expansion and contraction of these late Postclassic economic entities impacted the subsistence strategies and economic organization of a single community, Isla Cilvituk, whose political and economic position is presumed marginal relative to contemporary developments in Mesoamerica. In this first stage of the investigation, she will conduct an intensive survey in which the remains of house lots, features and dwelling units, as well as non-residential structures will be fully recorded. A random sample of auger tests will also be employed to establish the chronological depth and distribution of artifactual material across the site. Dr. Alexander is interested in the nature and development of family units and recent analyses of economic organization of large-scale core-periphery systems suggests that episodes of economic expansion and contraction of urban centers have wide ranging effects on household subsistence strategies, not only in the core's immediate sustaining area, but also in peripheral regions. The work will therefore examine how, over long periods, of time the basic human economic unit - the household - responds to economic and political change. This research is important because it will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase our understanding of the factors which affect households and will assist in the career development of a pr omising young scientist.
