Emergence Of Chiefdoms Research Articles

The Changes of Settlement Types in the Kajang Area: from Segmentary Society to Chiefdoms

This study aims to reveal the current type of community in Kajang area based on social structure, politics, economy, technology, as well as ideology. Kajang area is a traditional region located on the hill sides of Bone Bay Sea shore in the District of Kajang, Bulukumba, South Sulawesi Province. To pursue the aim of this study, descriptive qualitative method is used. The results show that historically, in order to overcome the limitations of facilities and infra structure, communities in Kajang reached other regions either by land or water. Thus, there are various artifacts from megalithic and Islamic cultures indicating the existence of local cultural syncretism with the culture from other regions. All of the artifacts found in Kajang area are bound in a functional fabric, which is limited by the level of supporting human activities, namely community protection activities, religious and ceremonial activities, as well ashousehold activities. Besides, relics found also indicate that there was a cultural shift in Kajang region, from agrarian culture to maritime one. Thus, the current type of community in Kajang area can be considered to be shifted from segmentary society to chiefdom. Nevertheless, this does not mean that with the emergence of chiefdoms, the segmentary society has simply disappeared.

Warfare and Socio-political hierarchies: reflections on non-State societies of the predynastic Nile Valley

In a recent article, anthropologist Robert L. Carneiro reassessed his most debated hypothesis about the emergence of chiefdoms and the State as a result of environmental or social circumscription, theorized for a series of historical contexts including that of the Predynastic Nile Valley. The problem of the origin of the State is beyond our scope, but regarding the emergence of institutionalized leadership and chiefdoms in the Nile Valley, Carneiro’s ideas about warfare as a main factor in the process of social change remain interesting, even when his insistence in circumscription is still debatable. The aim of the present paper is to briefly review the available archaeological evidence of warfare among non-State societies of the Predynastic Nile Valley, and to evaluate its possible relation to the emergence of socio-political hierarchies, in turn refering to and criticizing some of Carneiro’s recent ideas about the issue.

Some Notes on the Issue of the Development of Balt Society in the Ninth to the 13th Centuries in the Context of the Socio-Political Structures of the Baltic Region

The article discusses questions pertaining to the development of the socio-political structures of the West Balts. On the basis of archaeological studies and scarce historical sources, the conclusion is drawn that the first shoots of statehood might have emerged during the Viking era. It seems that the fortification of hill-forts, the emergence of castles, the increasing differentiation of material wealth, the emergence of proto-towns, and the formation of the stratum of warriors should allow us to talk of the emergence of chiefdoms in the land of the West Balts. However, all these attributes rather demonstrate the development of social structures. The question is put whether the social elite that stood out during the Viking era was at the same time the political elite. Thus, the main question is, what kind of chiefdoms can we talk about, and from when and how did the political elite emerge, which predetermined the emergence of a state in the lands of the East Balts, but which nevertheless did not lead the society of the West Balts to statehood? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/ab.v19i0.276 Key words: chiefdom, the institution of chieftain, tribes of the West Balts, structures of societies, social and political relations, the Viking era, the Baltic region.

Chiefly power and food storage in southeastern North America

Recent research on late prehistoric and early historic Native American sites in southeastern North America reveals a series of changes in the nature of food storage activities. These alterations are related to changes in sociopolitical complexity and household organization, and shed light on the importance of storage in the emergence and collapse of complex, hierarchically‐ranked societies in this region. It is argued that the ability of elites to control surplus foods and communal storage facilities played a major role in the emergence of chiefdoms in southeastern North America (c. AD 1000), and that the return of primary food storage to individual households during the Protohistoric and Historic periods (AD 1550–1750) played an important part in their collapse.

Objects of Memory: The Ethnography and Archaeology of Heirlooms

With the emergence of chiefdoms, a new ideology of inherited social difference had to be created and sustained over time. One way that inherited social inequalities may have been constructed, legitimated, and maintained is through the transmission of heirlooms or artifacts that objectified a collective ancestral past. Archaeologists have generally viewed heirlooms as anomalies or complications in the archaeological record. In this paper, however, I argue that, if identified, heirlooms have the potential to provide a richer and finer-grained understanding of the human past, in general, and to aid in the determination of hereditary rank, in particular. I discuss and compare the ethnographic evidence for heirloom use in bands, tribes, and chiefdoms, and, based on this evidence, I suggest criteria by which heirlooms might be identified in the archaeological record. Some examples of possible heirlooms from the archaeological literature are also presented. Finally, an evolutionary model for the circulation and disposal of heirlooms is proposed.

The archaeology of mainland Southeast Asia: from 10,000 B.C. to the fall of Angkor

List of illustrations Acknowledgements Chronological table 1. Introduction 2. Hunter-gatherer communities and early domestication 3. The expansion of domestic communities 4. The end of autonomy and emergence of chiefdoms 5. The development of mandalas 6. The Angkorian Mandala 7. Concluding remarks References Index.