Recent Discoveries and Some Thoughts on Early Urbanization at Anyang

Osteoarthritis, labour division, and occupational specialization of the Late Shang China - insights from Yinxu (ca. 1250 - 1046 B.C.)

“…This argument can be significant as it would allow us to speculate the existence of an expanded family/clan/lineage system in Yinxu society. Meanwhile, many Shang archaeologists argue that Yinxu society was spatially organized by lineage-based neighbourhoods [34,51], which were physically segregated but socially and economically connected [51]. Yinxu neighbourhoods have been proposed to be most likely defined by occupational specialization [3,4,51].…”

“…The Yinxu society is considered to be organized and stratified by lineage-based groups ( zu 族) [1,4,48–51]. The kingly lineage ( wangzu 王族), princely lineages ( zizu 子族) and all other royal descendant lineages ( duozizu 多子族) were at the top of the kinship community pyramid [4,52].…”

“…The non-elite members of the different lineages were “the masses” [53]. Controlled by the elites, “the masses” laboured in subsistence practice, craft production, construction, and warfare to fulfill the political and economic demands of the Shang kings and to support the rapidly expanded urban population [4,51]. This lineage system functioned not only in the social and cultural aspects of the society, but also in determining the spatial distribution of neighbourhoods [34].…”

“…This lineage system functioned not only in the social and cultural aspects of the society, but also in determining the spatial distribution of neighbourhoods [34]. These segregated neighbourhoods are thought to be associated with certain specialized occupations that can be estimated by archaeological evidence of workshops found nearby [4,51,54,55]. …”

Looking Forward by Studying the Past in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology: The Next 50 Years

“…An intricate mix of intensifying subsistence strategies, population movement, and the spread of ideas seem more appropriate for explaining the "origins of agriculture" in Southeast Asia than unidirectional models that ignore local dynamics, particularly because local populations did not always embrace a Neolithic package. The island of Borneo is an increasingly well-researched example of this latter behavior (e.g., Barker and Richards 2012;Barton 2012 Jing et al 2013) characterizes the Yinxu urbanization process as an 'evolution of simplicity' that accompanied the institution of China's earliest state tradition. Artifactbased research from four of his colleagues complemented this macro-scale perspective n Yinxu.…”