LATZ Flashcards
(39 cards)
1
Q
Define:
→ Sociopolitical
- relating to, or involving?
→ Egalitarian societies
- Societies in which no great differences in what?
→ hierarchy
-For of social what?
→ Social stratification
- A form of what?
- What do people have unequal
- Give example
→ What are stratifies societies usually?
A
- Sociopolitical: relating to, or involving, both social & political factors, especially where social organization is read as a political expression
- Egalitarian societies: Societies in which no great differences in wealth, power, or prestige divide members form one another
- Hierarchy: organisation or group whose members are arranged in ranks; form of social organization where members possess different status
- Social stratification: A form of social organization in which people have unequal access to wealth, power, & prestige, including an extensive division of labour, and occupational specialization
- (i.e. social complexity)
- Stratified societies are usually hierarchical
2
Q
Chiefdom
- What is the political leader and his/her lineage set apart by?
- What are primary centre?
- What is status determined by?
A
- Set apart by privileged resource access, wealth & status
- Primary centres are generally ritual/ceremonial rather than urban (as in states)
- Status determined by relationship to the ruling lineage rather than class
3
Q
Example: Complex Chiefdoms of the Mississippian Culture after AD 1000
- What period is Preliminary? When is this period?
- What is this agriculture based on?
- Give example
- What is a commonplace?
- Especially what?
A
- Preliminary: Woodland Period (from 500 BC - or earlier)
- Agriculture based initially on local Eastern Agricultural Complex
- Oily & starchy seed plants
- Mound building became commonplace
- Especially dome-shaped burial mounds
4
Q
Woodland period
- What is it associated with in some areas?
A
- Associated in some regions with growing inequality & large-scale spheres of interaction involving goods (cult objects) & rituals ( eg hopewell interaction spheres
- First centuries AD
5
Q
Woodland period
- What shape mounds
- Where where they constructed?
- What where they sometimes capped with?
A
- Square & rectangular mounds constructed mostly in eastern southern North America, sometimes capped with temples or residences
6
Q
Mississippian Period
- What is this period associated with?
- What was introduced from central America?
A
Mississippian Period: associated with centralised hierarchical Chiefdoms & the intense cultivation of maize introduced from central America
7
Q
The implications of a growing reliance on maize
- Availability of what? What could be improved & How?
- What are populations increasingly reliant on?
- Give example
A
- Availability of a reliable food supply where production could be improved through intensive agriculture
- Populations increasingly reliant on a nutritionally deficient diet
- Corn lacks important proteins
8
Q
Mississippian Mounds
- Where are they often grouped
- What do they reinforce?
A
- Often grouped around a civic-ceremonial plaza
- reinforcing religious/political structures & control
9
Q
the Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama)
- What is phase 1?
- When?
- How many mounds constructed?
- Where there any mounds in surrounding valley?
- Reliance on what?
- What was introduced?
A
- Phase 1 - Production intensification
- AD 1050 - 1200
- Two mounds constructed
- none in surrounding valley
- Reliance on corn more pronounced
- Beans introduced
10
Q
the Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama)
- What is phase 2?
- When?
- Construction of what?
A
- Phase 2 - Initial centralisation
- AD 1200 - 1300
- Construction of surrounding palisade & multiple mounds
11
Q
What are Anthropological evidence of state organization?
A
- Agricultural intensification & surplus
- Fulltime craft specialisation & exchange
- Centralised bureaucratic administration, taxation & redistribution
- Poilitical/administrative/urban centres - with associated monumentality
- Major transport networks (as distinct from ceremonial procession routes)
- Standing armies
- Class distinction (high, middle, low)
12
Q
Explanations
→ Monocausal explanations
- Emphasis on what?
- What type of cause? more recently?
→ Multivariate explanations
- Emphasis on what?
- More characteristic of process archaeology with its emphasis on what approach? & what amplification?
A
Monocausal explanations
- Emphasis on a single prime mover
- Diffusion (early) or single, dominant cause (more recently; social, environmental)
Multivariate explanations
- Emphasis on an association of drivers, systematically integrated
- More characteristic of process archaeology with its emphasis on systems approach & feedback amplification
13
Q
Hydraulic hypothesis
→ What is wittfogel: managerial
- Control of?
→ What was required to construct & maintain irrigation works?
→ What is characterised as ‘despotic’ (oriental Despotism)
→ What are some examples of Wittfogels oriental?
A
→ Control of large-scale irrigation
→ Central management required to construct & maintain irrigation works
→ Associated system of government characterised as ‘despotic’ (Oriental Depotism)
→ Wittfogels oriental examples include Sumeria & Egypt (grain agriculture in alluvial river plains)
14
Q
Critique
- What did large irrigation works in Sumeria follow
- What does Hawaiian irrigation not require? How can it be managed?
A
- Large irrigation works in Sumeria followed state formation
- Hawaiian irrigation does not require central management - It can be managed locally
15
Q
Warefare & conquest
- What has been long argued of what warfare generally is?
- What are military campaigns & conquest crucial in?
A
- It has long been argued that warfare is generally a recurrent feature of early state societies
- Military campaigns & conquests are crucial in the integration & expansion of the organized state
16
Q
Warefare & conquest
- What is common & widespread in early states?
- Give examples
A
- Images of victorious armies & rulers are common & widespread in early states
- Sumerian Vulture Stela
- Narmer Palette
17
Q
Critique
- Conquering & ‘smiting’ motifs are what?
- Give example
A
- Conquering & ‘smiting’ motifs are recurring & symbolic
- eg Narmer Palette celebrates the King as a symbol of strength, unity & triumph of order over chaos
18
Q
- What do some Egyptologist consider voluntary? Based on what?
- In response to what?
A
Some Egyptologists consider that components of unification may have been voluntary, based on economic needs
- especially in response to Nile flucuations as much as involuntary (warefare)
19
Q
Population pressure
- What did Boserup argue?
- What is required?
- What requires hierarchy?
A
- Boserup argued that population increases stimulate agricultural intensification
- Greater administrative efficiences & economies of scale required - including specialization
- Centralised decision making requires hierarchy
20
Q
the Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama)
- What is phase 3?
- What is vacated?
- Larger what?
- Regional what?
- Elaborate?
A
Phase III Entrenched Paramountcy
- Centre vacated by residents
- Lager site now a regional necropolis & ceremonial centre with elaborate cult
21
Q
the Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama)
- What is phase 4? - when?
- What declines?
- What is abandoned?
A
- Phase IV Collapse & reorganisation AD 1450-1650
Mortuary use declines
- Greater site area abandoned
22
Q
Rise of the paramount Moundville Chiefdom
- Where were the settlements?
- What production was intensified
- Tributary agricultural economy under the authority of paramount centre reinforced by what?
A
- Crowded river valley settlements in terminal Woodland Period
- Maize production intensified from late Woodland
- Reinforced by cult symbolism & monumental construction
23
Q
Collapse of the paramount Moundville Chiefdom
- Nutritional stress from?
- Over-reliance on?
- Conflict among?
A
- Nutritional stress from soil exhaustion affecting agriculture
- and perhaps from over-reliance on protein-deficient cor itself
- Conflict among elites
24
Q
Interpretive archaeology
- What type of approach is this?
- Rejects what proposal?
- Criticises the mechanic nature of?
- Allows what independent variables in culture change>
A
- This approach is multivariate because interpretive archaeology
- Rejects the proposal that any single cause or meta-narrative can account for the rise of complexity (or anything else for the matter)
- Criticises the mechanistic nature of processual & systems explanations
- Allows that agency, ideology & history are all independent variables in culture change
25
With reference to data from the intensive, wetland agriculture system of hawaii, Earle argues
- Who developed agricultural technologies first?
- Engineered agricultural landscapes emerged around economic bottlenecks, controlled by who? And to mobilize what?
- Agricultural technologies were developed first by individual comminities
- Controlled by elites
- 'to mobilize the productionof surpluses to support state institutions'
26
The monumental mortuary rise & fall of the Egyptian Old Kingdom
- When?
- What is apart of Upper Egypt?
- What is apart of lower Egypt?
- (2686 BC - 2134BC)
- Nile river
- Valley dissects a desert landscape
- Delta environment at Mediterranean coast
27
- What was established along Nile & dependent on regular Nile flooding?
- What was dependent on regular Nile flooding?
- Was population density high or low?
- Egalitarian farming villages 7000 years ago
- Cattle herding & cereals agriculture
- Population density relatively low
28
What did certain hamlets acquire more wealth and control through?
- Tradable goods
| - Food surpluses
29
What altered during the course of construction 27th century BC by Pharoah Djoser?
- First - step pyramid at saqqara
30
What was the Saqqara pyramid a centrepiece of?
- Ritual enclosure where the king displayed in public ceremonies as supreme ruler
31
- When was the Great Pyramid of Khufu completed?
| - How many years of construction?
- 2560 BC
| - 20 yrs
32
What did pyramid building & associated monumental construction at Giza reinforce?
- Reinforced central state authority around male Pharoah/sun god as symbol of order, stability & fertility
33
What is Giza about?
- Giza is about the memorialization and power of a single, powerful leader
34
What happened to the Old Kingdom in 2100 BC?
- Old Kingdom ended in crisis as catastrophic droughts hit the Nile
35
What did later (New Kingdom) Pharoahs periodically reinstall? Rather than?
- Monumantal public works and temple rather than mortuary constructions
36
Collapse: the southern Maya lowlands case study
- What is the Maya Classic Period?
- What was characterized by patron-client relationships?
- AD 250-900
| - Dense mosaic of states of unequal size
37
Collapse: the southern Maya lowlands case study
- What was raised off the landscape atop rubble platform mounds?
- What was limited by narrow accessways?
- What is there separation of?
- Temples
- Accessibility
- Ritual specialists & rulers
38
Collapse: the southern Maya lowlands case study
- Cycles of apparent 'collapse' and recovery were commonplace in Maya society for how long?
- Give an example
- How long did the final Classic Maya 'collapse' take? And when?
- What stresses were responsible?
- 1500 years
- Eg pre-Classic abandonment of Mirador Basin around AD 150
- Final Classical Maya 'collapse' took at least 150 years from about 760 AD
- Overpopulation
- Agricultural deterioration, consequent disease
- Warfare
39
What was the the ancient Mayas obsessive focus on?
- Maize
