Archaic States

by Feinman, Gary M.; Marcus, Joyce

• ISBN13: 9780933452992
• ISBN10: 0933452993
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-01
• Publisher: School for Advanced Research/Sar pr

Summary

One of the most challenging problems facing contemporary archaeology concerns the operation and diversity of ancient states. This volume addresses how ancient states were structured and how they operated, an understanding of which is key to our ability to interpret a state's rise or fall. Archaic States presents new comparative studies of early states in the Old and New Worlds and identifies important avenues for research and discussion in the decades ahead. Among the themes addressed are the scale, size, and organization of ancient states; state typologies and corporate political economy; the ground plans of buildings in archaic states; strategies of state expansion; the incorporation of autonomous polities in the state and their subsequent governance; evidence of order, legitimacy, and wealth; warfare and status rivalry; and the political and social complexity of states. With essays on the Near East, India and Pakistan, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Introduction	p. 3
The Ground Plans of Archaic States	p. 15
The Peaks and Valleys of Ancient States: An Extension of the Dynamic Model	p. 59
Scale and Social Organization: Perspectives on the Archaic State	p. 95
Beyond Centralization: Steps Toward a Theory of Egalitarian Behavior in Archaic States	p. 135
Uruk States in Southwestern Iran	p. 173
Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia	p. 199
Sociocultural Complexity Without the State: The Indus Civilization	p. 261
Inka Strategies of Incorporation and Governance	p. 293
Warfare and Status Rivalry: Lowland Maya and Polynesian Comparisons	p. 311
References	p. 353
Index	p. 421
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