Patterned variation in prehistoric chiefdoms

Abstract

Comparative study of early complex societies (chiefdoms) conjures visions of a cultural evolutionary emphasis on similarities and societal typology. Variation within the group has not been as systematically examined but offers an even more productive avenue of approach to fundamental principles of organization and change. Three widely separated trajectories of early chiefdom development are compared here: the Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico), the Alto Magdalena (Colombia), and Northeast China. Archaeological data from all three regions are analyzed with the same tools to reveal variation in human activities, relationships, and interactions as these change in the emergence of chiefly communities. Patterning in this variation suggests the operation of underlying general principles, which are offered as hypotheses that merit further investigation and evaluation in comparative study of a much larger number of cases.comparative study ͉ social hierarchy S upralocal communities organized around institutionalized social inequalities emerged repeatedly and independently around the world between about 1,000 and 7,000 years ago. The earliest such societies, often broadly labeled chiefdoms, frequently, but not always, came into existence after the establishment of sedentary agricultural living. This fundamental transformation in human social organization was speculated about by mid-19th-century cultural evolutionists on the basis of comparative ethnography, and it has been more directly documented by archaeological research since the mid-20th century. Comparative study has drawn heavily on earlier cultural evolutionary work, sharing its focus on similarities and universals. Hierarchical relationships, of course, have deep roots in dominance behavior in the human (and other) species, and the institutionalization of such relationships provides effective organization, especially at large social scales. That such institutions have appeared repeatedly in human history is no surprise, but we do not fully understand just how they came to emerge when and where they did, and not in other times and places. We are also increasingly aware that early chiefdom communities did not all take the same form and did not all emerge in the same way. There are indications that this variation is not just idiosyncratic detail, and that comparative study of its patterning can provide insight into the developmental dynamics of institutionalized social hierarchy. Ironically, the very richness of information that has brought about this realization is itself an impediment to effective comparative study, which finally will need to draw on the social trajectories of dozens of regions. When a recent comparison of seven early civilizations runs over 750 pages, one despairs of ever seeing the forest for the trees. Here, we look at three regions, focusing on changing activities, relationships, and interactions in human communities where inequalities emerged and became institutionalized.

Chiefdoms at the threshold: The competitive origins of the primary state

“…Both have been viewed as unprecedented and precocious in their founding periods, experiencing dramatic population growth and a rapid ascent to regional prominence. Yet, when the respective antecedents and socioenvironmental contexts of Cahokia and Monte Albán are taken into account, we can detect certain key differences in their developmental trajectories (e.g., Drennan and Peterson, 2006). The aim of this comparison is to analyze variation in the competitive conditions that confronted these two upstart paramount chiefdoms.…”

Human cremation in Mexico 3,000 years ago

“…from excavations at Tayata, an early village in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, suggests that status-marking funerary rites existed centuries before urban states arose and millennia before historical sources reference the cremation of Mixtec kings and Aztec emperors. Our study documents one of the key building blocks in the initial growth of social complexity: the time when early village societies divided into ranks and a person's status in life was reflected at death, reinforcing the economic differentiation that was fundamental to early village life (6,7). However, to understand the beginnings of those complex societies that were the building blocks of later Mesoamerican civilizations, it helps to begin with anthropological information from historical periods.…”

Hongshan chiefly communities in Neolithic northeastern China

“…The elaborate platform burials with jade carvings are taken to represent elites in a social hierarchy based less on wealth than on religion because of the symbolic nature of the jades and the scarcity of utilitarian offerings. These elites are sometimes thought of as the ceremonial and political leaders of large, well integrated polities (6,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Craft specialization has been thought necessary to produce both jade carvings and the pottery cylinders used in platforms (6,9,11,16,17).…”