Price / Feinman Pathways to Power

New Perspectives on the Emergence of Social Inequality
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4419-6300-0
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 305 Seiten

Reihe: Fundamental Issues in Archaeology

There are few questions more central to understanding the prehistory of our species than those regarding the institutionalization of social inequality. Social inequality is manifested in unequal access to goods, information, decision-making, and power. This structure is essential to higher orders of social organization and basic to the operation of more complex societies. An understanding of the transformation from relatively egalitarian societies to a hierarchical organization and socioeconomic stratification is fundamental to our knowledge about the human condition.  In a follow-up to their 1995 book Foundations of Social Inequality, the Editors of this volume have compiled a new and comprehensive group of studies concerning these central questions. When and where does hierarchy appear in human society, and how does it operate? With numerous case studies from the Old and New World, spanning foraging societies to agricultural groups, and complex states, Pathways to Power provides key historical insights into current social and cultural questions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Price, T. Douglas

Feinman, Gary M.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;5
2;Contents;7
3;Contributors;8
4;1 Social Inequality and the Evolution of Human Social Organization;9
4.1; A Definition of Social Inequality;10
4.2; Why Are We Still Talking About Social Inequality;10
4.3; The Chapters in This Volume;12
4.3.1; Ken Ames;13
4.3.2; Dick Drennan, Christian Peterson, and Jake Fox;13
4.3.3; Mark Aldenderfer;14
4.3.4; Brian Hayden and Suzanne Villeneuve;15
4.3.5; T. Douglas Price and Ofer Bar-Yosef;15
4.3.6; Kristian Kristiansen;16
4.3.7; Tina Thurston;17
4.3.8; Gary Feinman;18
4.4; Pathways to Power;18
4.5;References;19
5;2 On the Evolution of the Human Capacity for Inequality and/or Egalitarianism;23
5.1; Introduction;23
5.2; Constraints and Freedom;27
5.3; Prestige, Dominance, Attention Structure, and Costly Signaling;28
5.4; The Origins of Inequality or of Egalitarianism;30
5.4.1; Egalitarianism;32
5.4.2; The Persistence of Prestige Seeking;35
5.4.3; On the Evolution of Prestige Technologies;39
5.4.4; The Evolution of Egalitarianism;41
5.5; Summary and Conclusions;45
5.6;References;46
6;3 Degrees and Kinds of Inequality;53
6.1; Burial Evidence;54
6.2; Burials and Social Inequality;62
6.3; Household Evidence;65
6.4; Public Works Evidence;72
6.5; Conclusions;78
6.6;References;81
7;4 Gimme That Old Time Religion: Rethinking the Role of Religion in the Emergence of Social Inequality;85
7.1; Religion and What It Does;88
7.2; Under What Circumstances Are Religions Traditional or Transformative;89
7.3; Maintaining, if Not Extending, Emerging Inequality;92
7.4; A Cultic Reaction to Increasing Inequality;94
7.5; Religion, Persistent Inequality, and Persistent Leadership;96
7.6; Final Remarks;100
7.7;References;101
8;5 Who Benefits from Complexity A View from Futuna;103
8.1; Introduction;103
8.2; Transegalitarian Studies Provide a Prelude to Studying Chiefdoms;105
8.2.1; Aggrandizers;107
8.3; A Prelude to Chiefdoms;112
8.4; Traditional and Modern Chiefdoms in Polynesia;114
8.5; The Futunan Chiefdom;117
8.5.1; Benefits to Futunan Chiefs;122
8.5.1.1; Ownership and Control Over Land;122
8.5.1.2; Labor Contributions;124
8.5.1.3; Food Contributions;124
8.5.1.4; Fines and Penalties;131
8.5.1.5; Multiple Wives;132
8.5.1.6; Control Over Prestige Goods;132
8.5.1.7; Wealth Exchanges;132
8.5.1.8; Political Power;133
8.6; Warfare and Feasts in Chiefdom Dynamics;135
8.7; Discussion;139
8.7.1; Body Memories and Symbolic Capital;141
8.7.2; The Spiritual Strategies of Aggrandizers;141
8.7.3; Cognitive Versus Practical Consequences and Empirical Events;144
8.8; Conclusions;145
8.9;References;147
9;6 Traces of Inequality at the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East;154
9.1; The Beginnings of Inequality;154
9.2; The Archaeological Evidence;156
9.2.1; The Natufian Culture;156
9.2.1.1; Early Neolithic: The First Millennium (or the PPNA);159
9.2.1.2; Early Neolithic: The Next Two-and-Half Millennia (or the PPNB);162
9.2.1.3; Burial and Mortuary Practice During the PPNB;164
9.2.1.4; House Contents During the PPNB;167
9.3; Conclusions;167
9.4;References;169
10;7 Decentralized Complexity: The Case of Bronze Age Northern Europe;176
10.1; Introduction;176
10.2; Ritual Landscapes and Social Institutions;177
10.3; Power Structures and Decentralized Complexity;183
10.4; Households and the Political Economya Temporal Outline;188
10.4.1; Beginning of Bronze Age;188
10.4.2; Middle Bronze Age Expansion and Re-organization of Landscape and Society;189
10.4.3; End of Bronze Age/Beginning of Iron Age;189
10.5; The Rise and Fall of Bronze Age Political Economies: A Long-Term Trajectory Towards Social Transformation;190
10.6; After TransformationDark Age or Creative Democratization The Beginning of a New Evolutionary Cycle;195
10.7;References;196
11;8 Bitter Arrows and Generous Gifts: What Was a `King' in the European Iron Age?;200
11.1; Introduction;200
11.1.1; The Twentieth Century Roots of Power Theories in the Social Sciences;201
11.1.2; Alternative Perspectives on Power;208
11.2; Power, Heterarchy, and Decentralization in Iron Age Europe;213
11.2.1; The Northern Iron Age;215
11.2.2; What Was a King in the So-Called Viking Age?;216
11.2.3; Ethnographies of Power from the Continental Iron Age;221
11.2.4; Disputed Interpretations of Iron Age Europe;225
11.2.5; Reinterpreting Sociopolitical Development in Iron Age Europe;227
11.2.6; Pre-Roman Italy;234
11.2.7; Sources and Consequences of Contention;242
11.3; Retheorizing the Iron Age: Some Thoughts for the Future;244
11.4;References;245
12;9 A Dual-Processual Perspective on the Power and Inequality in the Contemporary United States: Framing Political Economy for the Present and the Past;262
12.1; Theoretical Background;264
12.2; Why the Contemporary United States?;265
12.3; Political Economy: Power, Legitimation, Wealth, and Their Underpinnings;266
12.4; The Balance of Governing Power;267
12.5; Legitimation;269
12.6; The Growing Importance of Personal Networks;270
12.7; Economic Underpinnings and Trends;272
12.8; Economic Inequality;274
12.9; Correlation, Causality, and Comparison;281
12.10; Summarizing Thoughts and Implications for the Diachronic Study of Inequality;284
12.11; Bridging Theoretical Constructs to Chart Future Directions;286
12.12;References;288
13;Subject Index;296