Heterogeneity, power, and political economy: Some current research issues in the archaeology of Old World complex societies

Stein, Gil J.

doi:10.1007/bf02443149

Cited by 147 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 122 publications

(113 reference statements)

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“…The tangled character of how power is actually distributed, as discussed above, is echoed by Mann's (1986, p. 1) observation: ''Societies are constituted of multiple overlapping and intersecting sociospatial networks of power.'' All social systems have these alternative sources of power, sometimes referred to as ''heterarchy'' (Crumley 1995(Crumley , 2001Stein 1998). These alternatives may be co-opted by official hierarchies, and sometimes they coalesce as rebellion or subaltern ways of contesting existing power structures.…”

Section: Elements Of Power and Empirementioning

confidence: 99%

Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis

Rogers

2012

J Archaeol Res

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By 200 B.C. a series of expansive polities emerged in Inner Asia that would dominate the history of this region and, at times, a very large portion of Eurasia for the next 2,000 years. The pastoralist polities originating in the steppes have typically been described in world history as ephemeral or derivative of the earlier sedentary agricultural states of China. These polities, however, emerged from local traditions of mobility, multiresource pastoralism, and distributed forms of hierarchy and administrative control that represent important alternative pathways in the comparative study of early states and empires. The review of evidence from 15 polities illustrates long traditions of political and administrative organization that derive from the steppe, with Bronze Age origins well before 200 B.C. Pastoralist economies from the steppe innovated new forms of political organization and were as capable as those based on agricultural production of supporting the development of complex societies.

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Section: Elements Of Power and Empirementioning

confidence: 99%

Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis

Rogers

2012

J Archaeol Res

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“…Isolated and formalized concentrations of aggregate corporate ritual centers increasing excluded commoners and women, members of society who lacked mana, from the ''state religion''. Corporate ritual sites thus served as one avenue for elites and high-status priests in formal clergies to strategically use ideology to institutionalize social hierarchies and political status, a pattern seen in many other ranked societies in Polynesia (Clark et al, 2008;Clark and Martinsson-Wallin, 2007;Kirch, 1984Kirch, , 2010Hommon, 2013) and elsewhere (Demarrais et al, 1996;Fleisher and Wynne-Jones, 2010;Rakita, 2009;Pauketat and Emerson, 1997;Stein, 1998;Swenson, 2007;Van Buren and Richards, 2000).…”

Section: The Advent Of Ritual Specialists and Ideological And Socioecmentioning

confidence: 95%

Identifying residences of ritual practitioners in the archaeological record as a proxy for social complexity

Kahn

2015

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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a b s t r a c tDedicated ritual specialists often had indispensable roles in ancient religions and significant impacts on political histories. Few studies have developed methodologies for recovering direct evidence for ritual practitioners in the archaeological record. I argue that the study of religious practitioners must take a holistic micro-scale approach, documenting not only the places where ritual paraphernalia (sacra) were stored, but places where priests and their assistants lived and practiced intimate and communal rituals. I begin with a discussion of ethnohistoric and ethnographic data to model what priests did in ancient societies, and what the material correlates of their dwellings and activities might look like. I then present archaeological data from two late prehistoric house sites identified as priest dwellings from East Polynesian. Utilizing multiple lines of evidence, including portable artifacts, botanical specimens, site architecture, and site distribution patterns, I argue that there is close complementarity between the eth nohistoric-ethnographic model and the archaeological remains. That priests' houses houses are often situated within corporate ritual centers speaks to the import of such sites and their associated ceremonial activities in the strategic use ideology to institutionalize social hierarchies and political status, a pattern seen in many other ranked societies in Polynesia and other case studies world-wide.

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“…By its nature specialisation is marked by flexibility rather than rigidity. Thus, it can be undertaken on part-time or full-time basis, by independent or attached, itinerant or sedentary communities, and can also be at a household, local or regional level (Costin, 1991;Stein, 1998;Chirikure, 2005;Li, 2007). As such the above definition by Costin (2001) can be considered to be more appropriate because it does not imply skill or competition and is applicable to all societies of all sizes and degrees of social complexity.…”

Section: 23: Specialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology and Technology of Metal Production in the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Bandama

2014

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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The inception of metallurgy in southern Africa was relatively late, compared to other regions in Africa, and as a result, this part of the sub-continent was mistakenly thought to have been less innovative during the Iron Age. On the contrary, dedicated materials analyses are showing that starting from the terminal first millennium AD, southern Africa is replete with innovations that include the growth of state systems, specialised long-distance trading, the re-melting of glass beads, the working of ivory, and the weaving of cotton using ceramic spindle whorls.Additionally, the appearance of gold and tin production, against a background of on-going iron and copper metallurgy, has been interpreted by some as intimating innovation in metal technology. While some research energy has been invested into these novelties, there has only been incidental concern with the innovation in tin and bronze production. This study investigates the context of this novelty in the metallurgy of the Southern Waterberg, an area that hosts one of the unequivocal cases of pre-colonial tin mining in southern Africa. Recent trace element studies have indicated that bronzes from several elite sites in the region, were produced using tin that was sourced from the Southern Waterberg. The current chronology from the Southern Waterberg does not capture the full tin sequence that is implicated by the trace-element analyses of tin and bronze from dated contexts elsewhere and falls short by at two centuries. To bridge this gap, the present study sought, to explore the visibility of tin production in the Southern Waterberg at sites that are contemporary with the appearance of tin and bronze in southern Africa, and to investigate how this innovation was integrated into on-going iron and copper production.Rigorous methodological and theoretical approaches that include ethno-historical, archaeological and archaeometallurgical studies were employed in order to glean relevant information required to address these issues.

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Heterogeneity, power, and political economy: Some current research issues in the archaeology of Old World complex societies

Abstract: Recent research on Old World chiefdoms and states has largely retreated from

Cited by 147 publications

References 122 publications

Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis

Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis

Identifying residences of ritual practitioners in the archaeological record as a proxy for social complexity

The Archaeology and Technology of Metal Production in the Late Iron Age of the Southern Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

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