Early State Formation Research Articles

The archaeology of China: from the late Paleolithic to the early Bronze Age

1. Chinese archaeology: past, present, and future 2. Environment and ecology 3. Foragers and collectors in the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (24,000-9000 cal. BP) 4. Domestication of plants and animals 5. Neolithization: sedentism and food production in the Early Neolithic (7000-5000 BC) 6. Emergence of social inequality: the Middle Neolithic (5000-3000 BC) 7. Rise and fall of early complex societies: the Late Neolithic (3000-2000 BC) 8. Formation of early states in the Central Plain: Erlitou and Erligang (1900/1800-1250 BC) 9. Bronze cultures of the north frontiers and beyond during the early second millennium BC 10. The Late Shang dynasty and its neighbors (1250-1046 BC) 11. Chinese civilization in comparative perspective.

Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia

This essay deals with cultural contact, exchange, and transfer at the eastern margins of medieval Europe where interactions between different cultures of European and Asian origin have, over the centuries, shaped a unique cross- cultural zone. As the western part of a Eurasian highway for peoples from Central Asia since ancient times, whose western migration became a crucial factor for early state formation in Europe, this intersection resulted mainly from eastward Slavic migration and the Varangian expansion to southern lands that brought the Norman Rus’ into contact and conflict with the Byzantines and the emerging steppe empires of the Desht-i Qipchaq. Evidence is given to support the view that cultural exchange is a concept not precise enough to explain how cultural goods were adapted and integrated in this cross-cultural zone which I prefer to call Slavia Asiatica. A more complex approach to culture transfer is needed to explain acculturation processes in medieval times, comprising many cultural subsystems: language and writing, law and religion, knowledge, values and norms, practices and socio-political institutions.

Theoretical Reflections on the Formation of Early States in China

与古代希腊、罗马及日耳曼不同, 中国古代国家起源走的是一条构建和谐的道 路, 即没有打碎氏族制度, 而是在普遍存在的氏族组织的基础上滥觞国家的萌芽, 国 家与氏族长期并存而使早期国家完善与发展。氏族制度的长期存在和发展, 这一古代 中国独具特色的社会结构是和谐构建之路的深厚社会基础。古代中国早期国家构建过 程中, 十分关注各个氏族、部落的情、义、利、患等问题。这种关注与社会实践成为 构建和谐的基石, 也是那个时代的领导者成功的标识。直到古代中国早期国家成熟 时, 还能够看到构建和谐理念的痕迹。 关键词: 早期国家 氏族制度 礼制 和谐 Unlike the ancient Greek, Roman and German states, ancient Chinese states took a path of harmonious construction which did not involve abolition of the clan system. It was on the basis of the existing clan organization that the first shoots of the state sprouted, and the state and the clans underwent a long coexistence which allowed the early state to develop and be perfected. The unique social structure of ancient China—the long existence and development of the clan system—was the underlying social foundation for harmonious construction. The early Chinese states were much concerned with the feelings, opinions about right and wrong, advantages and calamities of the clans and tribes. This concern and social practice was the foundation stone for harmonious construction, as well as the benchmark for success for the leaders of the time. Traces of the idea of harmonious construction are apparent up to the full development of the early state in ancient China.

Z-Phe-Ala-diazomethylketone (PADK) Disrupts and Remodels Early Oligomer States of the Alzheimer Disease Aβ42 Protein

The oligomerization of the amyloid-β protein (Aβ) is an important event in Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology. Developing small molecules that disrupt formation of early oligomeric states of Aβ and thereby reduce the effective amount of toxic oligomers is a promising therapeutic strategy for AD. Here, mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry were used to investigate the effects of a small molecule, Z-Phe-Ala-diazomethylketone (PADK), on the Aβ42 form of the protein. The mass spectrum of a mixture of PADK and Aβ42 clearly shows that PADK binds directly to Aβ42 monomers and small oligomers. Ion mobility results indicate that PADK not only inhibits the formation of Aβ42 dodecamers, but also removes preformed Aβ42 dodecamers from the solution. Electron microscopy images show that PADK inhibits Aβ42 fibril formation in the solution. These results are consistent with a previous study that found that PADK has protective effects in an AD transgenic mouse model. The study of PADK and Aβ42 provides an example of small molecule therapeutic development for AD and other amyloid diseases.

Between Inclusion and Exclusion: Feasting and Redistribution of Meals at Late Chalcolithic Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey)

The redistribution of meals and feasting practices in the early centralized society of Arslantepe VI A in south-eastern Anatolia (Late Chalcolithic 5 – 3300/3000 cal. BCE) are presented in this paper as examples of commensal politics. Within the framework of Mesopotamian early state formation, this period represents a stimulating case because of the evidence of economic centralization, the significant amount of materials found in in situ contexts, and the presence of functionally distinct architecture. Food and beverages were the economic base of the power of elites; yet it is not only through feasting activities that food enters Late Chalcolithic gastro-politics, but also through the meals disbursed in exchange for labor. Near Eastern Archaeology; Late Chalcolithic; Arslantepe; State Formation; Commensal Politics; Redistribution of Meals; Feasting

A Study on Anti-Communist Statism in Korean Nationalism: “The Bourgeois Rightists” of the Colonial Period and “The Syngman Rhee Group” of the Early State-Formation Period

A Study on Anti-Communist Statism in Korean Nationalism: “The Bourgeois Rightists” of the Colonial Period and “The Syngman Rhee Group” of the Early State-Formation Period

War and early state formation in the northern Titicaca Basin, Peru.

Excavations at the site of Taraco in the northern Titicaca Basin of southern Peru indicate a 2,600-y sequence of human occupation beginning ca. 1100 B.C.E. Previous research has identified several political centers in the region in the latter part of the first millennium B.C.E. The two largest centers were Taraco, located near the northern lake edge, and Pukara, located 50 km to the northwest in the grassland pampas. Our data reveal that a high-status residential section of Taraco was burned in the first century A.D., after which economic activity in the area dramatically declined. Coincident with this massive fire at Taraco, Pukara adopted many of the characteristics of state societies and emerged as an expanding regional polity. We conclude that organized conflict, beginning approximately 500 B.C.E., is a significant factor in the evolution of the archaic state in the northern Titicaca Basin.

Jan Glete . Swedish Naval Administration, 1521–1721: Resource Flows and Organisational Capabilities . (The Northern World, number 46.) Boston: Brill. 2010. Pp. xxiv, 816. $293.00.

Jan Glete's book ranges far beyond what the title reveals. Although he had already penned more than a dozen monographs, Glete intended to write additional books on Swedish naval technology and imperial expansion, as well as at least one tome on how organizational capacity promoted early modern European state formation. Deteriorating health compelled him to conflate these complex subjects into a solitary, ultimately posthumous volume. While navies provide a common denominator for the nine chapters, the permeating theme is how resource allocation enabled Europeans to harness various forms of power in order to become conquerors, colonizers, and imperialists. Population and wealth did not necessarily make a state powerful. Organization and deployment of resources were critical in state formation. Rulers who cultivated technical and organizational competencies “transformed resources into structures with new capabilities” (p. 3). A medium-sized but ambitious maritime state might acquire sufficient human and physical resources to build a standing navy, “the most centralized and complex organization that early modern states could run” (p. 668). That intersection of human initiative (the expansionist desires of the Vasa dynasty in the case of Sweden) and material reality (the physical and human geography of Sweden) created circumstances in which an entrepreneurial state wielded greater power than its more populous and affluent neighbors.

A Long View of Globalization and Crisis

The crises we confront raise fundamental questions: how do we rethink our objectives? What are we assuming as ‘given’ that is getting in the way? I approach these questions by undertaking a ‘long history’ of accumulation processes and the social hierarchies, justificatory ideologies, and subjective investments they generate. Early state formation marked a turning point in potential scales of accumulation; the ‘industrial revolution’ and European state making marked a subsequent leap associated with modern capitalism. Accumulation throughout has involved both economic and non-economic processes and a mixture of coercion and consent. I argue that a history of these transformations illuminates issues shaping current crises: in particular, the ‘givenness’ (normalization) of inequalities within and between groups; belief systems that cultivate stratifications and antagonistic relations; erasure of social reproduction as the indispensable foundation of sustainability; and the idealization of ‘growth’ that underpins accumulation processes but is in tension with equitable and sustainable conditions. Las crisis que enfrentamos plantean dos preguntas fundamentales: ¿cómo replanteamos nuestros objetivos? ¿Qué estamos asumiendo como ‘concedido’ que se nos interpone? Yo trato estas preguntas llevando a cabo una ‘larga historia’ de acumulación de procesos y de jerarquías sociales, ideologías justificativas y las inversiones subjetivas que ellas generan. La formación en la fase preliminar marcó un punto decisivo en los grados potenciales de acumulación; la ‘revolución industrial’ y la creación de los estados europeos marcaron un avance subsecuente asociado con el capitalismo moderno. La acumulación de principio a fin ha involucrado tanto a los procesos económicos como a los no económicos y una mezcla de coerción y acuerdo. Sostengo que una historia de estas transformaciones iluminan asuntos que dan forma a las crisis actuales: en particular ‘lo concedido’ (normalización) de las desigualdades dentro y entre los grupos; la convicción de sistemas que cultivan la estratificación y las relaciones antagónicas; la eliminación de la reproducción social como el fundamento de sostenibilidad; y la idealización del ‘crecimiento’ que fortalece la acumulación de procesos pero está en tensión con las condiciones equitativas y sostenibles.

Ultimate causes of state formation: the significance of biogeography, diffusion, and neolithic revolutions

Ultimative Ursachen fur die Staatsbildung: Die Signifikanz von Bi ogeographie, Diffusion und Neolithische Revolutionen?. The timing of early state formation varies across the world. Inspired by Jared Diamond's seminal work, we employ large-n statistics to demonstrate how this variation has been structured by prehistoric biogeographical conditions, which have influenced the timing of the transition from hunter/gatherer production to agriculture and, in turn, the timing of state formation. Biogeography structures both the extent to which societies have invented agriculture and state technology de novo, and the extent to which these inventions have diffused from adjacent societies. Im portantly, we demonstrate how these prehistoric processes have continued to

Fifth-century rulers of the Kawachi Plain, Osaka, and early state formation in Japan: some recent publications

Fifth-century rulers of the Kawachi Plain, Osaka, and early state formation in Japan: some recent publications

Henry Wright, Early State Formation in Central Madagascar: An Archaeological Survey of Western Avaradrano

The book Early State Formation in Central Madagascar: An Archaeological Survey of Western Avaradrano is the culmination of decades of research in the central highlands of Madagascar. The book was written primarily by Henry T. Wright (p. 6), along with fourteen other contributors, and is based on archaeological fieldwork carried out from 1975 to 1996, northeast of the modern capital of Antananarivo. The fieldwork was predominantly surface surveys, complemented by test excavations and specialist studies. Hence the book reads as a survey equivalent of a major site’s final excavation report. Beyond those interested specifically in the archaeology of Madagascar, or the archaeology of Africa or the Indian Ocean, scholars will find this work a useful demonstration of the power of regional surveys in archaeology and a detailed case study in the processes of archaic state formation. I agree with JeanAime Rakotoarisoa who states in the Foreword that this monograph will be an important model for all future studies. The heart of this book is the “Catalogue of Site Information,” which is the first of five appendices (the other appendices are updated versions of previously published articles based on the Avaradrano survey). The site catalogue is the longest section of the book at 152 pages, and contains detailed information on each site recorded, including site maps of the ditched fortifications and drawings of the diagnostic ceramics. Augustin Holl in the Preface to the volume suggests that this site catalogue is also the most important part of the book, since the level of detail will enable an independent evaluation of the author’s conclusions, or even the use of this data set to pursue other questions. In their Introduction, the authors themselves point to Chapter 5 as “arguably the most important in this study”—the chapter that summarizes the seven archaeological phases, from the earliest Fiekena Phase in the Afr Archaeol Rev (2009) 26:59–62 DOI 10.1007/s10437-009-9044-6

Union and Empire: The Making of the United Kingdom in 1707

The making of the United Kingdom in 1707 is still a matter of significant political and historical controversy. Allan Macinnes here offers a major new interpretation that sets the Act of Union within a broad European and colonial context and provides a comprehensive picture of its transatlantic and transoceanic ramifications that ranged from the balance of power to the balance of trade. He reexamines English motivations from a colonial as well as a military perspective and assesses the imperial significance of the creation of the United Kingdom. He also explores afresh the commitment of some determined Scots to secure Union for political, religious and opportunist reasons and shows that rather than an act of statesmanship, the resultant Treaty of Union was the outcome of politically inept negotiations by the Scots. Union and Empire will be a major contribution to the history of Britain, empire and early modern state formation.

Real‐time monitoring of the surface relief formation on azo‐polymer films upon near‐field excitation

We use near-field optical microscopy to investigate the early state formation of photo-induced topographical structures on the free surface of azobenzene-containing polymers. The near-field technique is employed to monitor in real time the mass migration during the embossing of the surface of 50/50 copolymer films of polymethacrylate and polymethacrylate containing 3-methyl-4'-pentyloxy-azobenzene units. The dynamic of surface relief formation induced by light have been investigated as a function of the sample temperature. Furthermore, a formula derived from Navier-Stokes equations for classical laminar flow has been used to fit the mass displacement data during the embossing process. Excellent agreements between the experimental data and the fitting formula have been found for all the temperature considered.

The Contingencies of State Formation in Eastern Inner Asia

Three key themes consistently play a role in the study of early state formation in eastern Inner Asia. First, scholars have frequently argued that China exerted a disproportionately strong influence on steppe polities, serving as a source of goods and ideas for neighboring pastoralist societies. Although Chinese states did very significantly influence steppe polities, interactions were complex and highly variable. Rather than being dominated by Chinese states, exchanges and interactions were often on a level of parity or were under the control of the steppe polities. It is frequently argued that the fragility of the pastoralist economy required steppe polities to acquire agricultural products, which in turn fostered a dependency on agricultural societies in the south. New evidence, however, suggests that the traditional distinction between pastoralist and agriculturalist economies may be insuficient to characterize the complex sets of interactions. Second, steppe polities are often described as short-lived entities that succeeded each other in rapid succession. This description deemphasizes the economic and cultural continuity that transcended the rise and fall of individual political entities. The third theme concerns the construction and maintenance of order. How, in other words, did rulers legitimate their power and maintain political and organizational control of populations and territories? Most interpretations argue that steppe polities looked to neighboring states for the cultural knowledge that allowed them to create and maintain order. That knowledge, however, came from multiple sources—especially the internal traditions that linked successive steppe polities.

Israelite, Moabite and Sabaean War-h&#803&#275rem Traditions and the Forging of National Identity: Reconsidering the Sabaean Text RES 3945 in Light of Biblical and Moabite Evidence

AbstractIn the biblical conquest accounts,hērem signifies ritual destruction and consecration to the deity of entire enemy populations and towns. The root hrm also appears in two extrabiblical conquest accounts: the Mesha Inscription and the Sabaean text, RES 3945. This article revisits the interpretation of the Sabaean text in light of recent scholarship in South Arabian Studies, and argues that RES 3945 should be placed on equal footing with the Mesha Inscription for its relevance for understanding the biblical hērem. Taken together, these sources situate the war-hērem in the context of early state formation, and suggest that the tripartite relationship between people, land and god, expressed in terms of b&ebrever&icaront, or &#147covenant,&#148 in ancient Israel, may in fact have found expression more widely, in a tribal, inland Palestinian setting with cultural connections extending into the South Arabian Peninsula.

Stability Under Late State Formation: the Case of Lebanon

The aim of this article is to explain variations in the stability of Lebanon. Against synchronic and domestic treatments of state stability in the developing world, this article historicises state stability, arguing that there is a time gap dividing old states, which structure the international system, and states in late formation. It argues that variation in the stability of Lebanon is a function of early state formation and the country's position in the state system. This study finds a causal relation between the intensity of regional conflict and level of stability in Lebanon. Historical asymmetrical differences among Lebanon's communities meant that responses to regional crises in Lebanon varied in accordance with the position of each actor in the domestic balance of power. These multiple responses have led to internal instability. The more intense the regional conflict, the more unstable Lebanon has tended to become, and vice versa.

Early Mainland Southeast Asian Landscapes in the First Millennium A.D.

Southeast Asia's earliest states emerged during the first millennium A.D. from the Irawaddy River of Myanmar to the Red River delta of northern Vietnam. Developments during this time laid the groundwork for the florescence of the region's later and better-known civilizations such as Angkor and Pagan. Yet disciplinary and language barriers have thus far precluded an anthropological synthesis of cultural developments during this time. This review uses a landscape focus to synthesize current knowledge of mainland Southeast Asia's earliest states, which emerged in the first millennium A.D. Research from archaeology and history illuminates articulations between physical and social factors in several kinds of Early Southeast Asian landscapes: economic, urban, and political. Social and ideological forces that shaped these first-millennium-A.D. landscapes are discussed as integral aspects of early state formation.

Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese Historians Interpreted in English (review)

Reviewed by: Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese Historians Interpreted in English William Wayne Farris Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese Historians Interpreted in English. Edited by Joan R. Piggott. Cornell East Asia Series, 2006. 496 pages. Hardcover $59.00; softcover $29.00. Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180 is a collection of fourteen essays published by Japanese scholars over the postwar period, from 1946 to 1996. They have been translated and interpreted by eight American and European archaeologists and historians intimately familiar with both the Japanese authors and their work. Particularly for those interested in the complex and often inaccessible world of Japanese historiography for what the translators label "the classical age," this volume will prove a handy guide. The editor, Joan R. Piggott, provides a brief but illuminating introduction, describing [End Page 409] the theme of the collection as the "relationships that linked capital and countryside from approximately 300 to 1180" (p. 1). She pays homage to John W. Hall's classic Government and Local Power in Japan, 500 to 1700, which addressed this theme in detail, portraying not only larger trends in Japanese institutional history, but also how they played out in the small, western Honshu province of Bizen. The chapters in this volume, the editor then indicates, should be considered an expansion of Hall's seminal research for the classical age, where English-language publication has been so rare. The introduction also defines terms such as kodai ("classical") and characterizes the studies of six Anglophone scholars "who have laid the groundwork to which these essays contribute" (p. 3): Gina Barnes, Bruce Batten, Cornelius Kiley, Thomas Keir-stead, Mikael Adolphson, and Piggott herself. Walter Edwards does a splendid job introducing the first two chapters, "Early State Formation in Japan," by Tsude Hiroshi, and Kobayashi Yukio's "Treatise on Duplicate Mirrors." Tsude is one of the leading archaeologists dealing with Japan's Tomb Age (250-600 CE), and his contribution highlights his argument "that the cultural achievements of the eighth-century Nara period were built on an economic base established over the preceding millennium" (p. 13). While Tsude's ideas have appeared elsewhere in English, this article provides a useful summation of his beliefs in the existence of a political status hierarchy manifested in the size and shape of tombs and his emphasis on access to iron and salt as crucial to state formation. Edwards's introduction and interpretation of Kobayashi's treatise on the distribution of the famous triangular-rimmed deity-and-beast mirrors-a critical point in the debate over the location of Yamatai-is nothing less than brilliant. For various reasons, Kobayashi's prose is often difficult to interpret, but Edwards manages superbly. His explanations of Kobayashi's writing are so illuminating that I kept wishing for more. Joan Piggott then introduces and translates "Suruga and Tōtōmi in the Kofun Age," by Hara Hidesaburō, an historian of the era from 400 to 900. Using what Piggott rightly calls a "collage of evidence" (p. 77), Hara traces the slow integration of these two provinces along the Tōkaidō into the Yamato polity, especially through conquest. Lest readers think that the translators have selected only those viewpoints that fit their own, Piggott explicitly notes her disagreement with Hara about the importance of warfare in state formation in Japan. In the fourth chapter, Michiko Aoki interprets "The Hitachi fudoki and the Fujiwara," by Inoue Tatsuo, who describes Yamato penetration into the Kantō in the mid-fifth century. Inoue argues that the Nakatomi, later to be renamed the Fujiwara, had vested interests in the Tone river valley in Hitachi from early on. Besides asserting that the Nakatomi may have been of peninsular ancestry, Inoue shows how "The Records of Wind and Earth" (fudoki) may well have been a project developed by the Fujiwara to enhance their political power at court. Karl Friday translates and introduces a true monument among studies of the Nara and early Heian periods, "The Classical Polity and its Frontier," by Takahashi Tomio. Written in 1962, this essay has formed the foundation for all subsequent research into the Nara and early Heian states' relations with the peoples in southern...

Contributors

david carey jr. is Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Southern Maine. He is the author of Our Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives: Xkib’ij kan qate’ Qatata’ (Univ. of Alabama Press, 2001) and has published articles in Latin American Perspectives and the Latin American Research Review. His current book project, Engendering Mayan History: Mayan Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875–1970, is forthcoming from Routledge Press.jordana dym is Associate Professor of Latin American History at Skidmore College, with a Ph.D. from New York University. Her research on the role of municipal politics in Central America’s early nineteenth-century state formation has culminated in a monograph, From Sovereign Villages to National States: City, State and Federation in Central America, 1759–1839 (Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2006), and Politics, Economy and Society in Bourbon Central America (Colorado Univ. Press, 2006), a book coedited with Christophe Belaubre (Univ. of Toulouse, France). In addition, she is working on a project on the cartography of travel writers with funding from the NEH and has published in edited volumes and journals, including Mesoamérica and Journal of Historical Geography.romana falcóN is Professor of History at the Centro de Estudios Históricos of El Colegio de México. She is the author of many publications, including Las rasgaduras de la descolonización: Españoles y Mexicanos a mediados del siglo XIX (Colegio de México, 1996), México descalzo: Estrategias de sobrevivencia frente a la modernización liberal (Plaza y Janés, 2002), and most recently edited Culturas de pobreza y resistencia: Estudios de marginados, proscritos y descontentos. México, 1804–1910 (Colegio de México / Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, 2005).thomas miller klubock is Associate Professor of History at SUNY–Stony Brook. He is the author of Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile’s El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904–1951 (Duke University Press, 1998). His article in this issue is part of a larger study focused on the history of Chile’s native temperate rain forests, examining the environmental history of rain forests as linked to the process of modern state formation, conflicts over land and labor, and the politics of nationalism, citizenship, and ethnicity.