Emergence of social complexity and its evidence in archaeological records
Dr. Arkadiusz Marciniak and Dr. Andrzej Pydyn
The aim of the session is to examine various categories of archaeological data from the point of view of their usefulness for the study of emergence of social complexity. This will engage with the critiques of definitions of social complexity in archaeological theories. It will also examine dialectical relations between these important social issues and archaeological data which supposedly reflect, represent or mask them. A significant focus will be on ethnoarchaeology and its usefulness for understanding relationships between material evidence and interpretation social complexity.
The second part will explore the practice of using archaeological data for studying social complexity and its constitution by examining various categories of archaeological evidence. This will include also faunal and botanical data, in the light of the increasing awareness of their importance for social studies in archaeology.
The papers to be presented in the session covers a wide range of geographical regions from Japan Papua New Guinea, Hawaii through Egypt and Near East to Central and Northern Europe. The case studies discussed come from different chronological periods from the Late Palaeolithic to the Iron Age.
Analysis of botanical and faunal data is becoming an important element in studies of social complexity as well as in its construction. The introduction of new plant and animal species has considerably influenced and modified existing social patternings. The similar consequences has had a differential access to various kinds of plant and animal species as well as to anatomical parts of animals. This was due to cultural categorisation of food which have had an important social and political consequences excercised both between different societies as well as within a given society.
An important element of the study of emergence of social complexity is organisation of space both within and between settlements. The changes in spatial arrangements of settlements and domestic architecture as well as distribution of material culture are both results and causes of social organisation and its transformations over time. The papers give an overview of the dynamic interplay between material sphere and social complexity.
Furthermore, the session will engage a discussion on the origin of complex societies in different parts of the world. The development of these societies could take place only as a result of a simple social and economic evolution, but could be strongly effected by other factors, for example establishment of long-distance network of exchange which united different regions in the Old World or development of the European colonialism in other parts of the world. The papers will discuss a material data which reflect and change these kinds of transformations.
papers:
Author 1 Author 1 Title
Baines Defining social complexity in early Egypt: levels of patterning in the evidence s010bns1
Banning Emerging from the Labyrinth: Spatial Organisation as Evidence for Ancient Social Networks
Beron Pampean hunter gatherers: increasing complexity features
Boquian The formation mould of Ancient Chinese Civilisation
Gosden Bigmen, chiefs and colonialism.
Holl The formation of Houlouf Chiefdom: A settlement pattern analysis
Hosoya Food of Power or Power of Food?-Introduction of rice and Japanese state formation
Marciniak Faunal remains and social change. Beyond subsistence studies.
na Pomberja Problems of Srivijaya and exchange networks and social organisation of Peninsular Southeast Asia.
Neves Complexity (or not?) in Amazonian Archaeology
Pydyn Lets go complex!
Roosevelt Ancient Complex Societies of the Tropical Forest: Great Art, Subsistence, Settlement, and Society