Power from Below in Premodern Societies

The Dynamics of Political Complexity in the Archaeological Record

T. L. Thurston, Manuel Fernández-Götz

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781316515396
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009051323
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume challenges previous views of social organization focused on elites by offering innovative perspectives on 'power from below.' Using a variety of archaeological, anthropological, and historical data to question traditional narratives of complexity as inextricably linked to top-down power structures, it exemplifies how commoners have developed strategies to sustain non-hierarchical networks and contest the rise of inequalities. Through case studies from around the world – ranging from Europe to New Guinea, and from Mesoamerica to China – an international team of contributors explores the diverse and dynamic nature of power relations in premodern societies. The theoretical models discussed throughout the volume include a reassessment of key concepts such as heterarchy, collective action, and resistance. Thus, the book adds considerable nuance to our understanding of power in the past, and also opens new avenues of reflection that can help inform discussions about our collective present and future.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Power from Below in the Archaeological Record: Trends and Trajectories
• 2 Fragmenting Trypillian Megasites: A Bottom-Up Approach
• 3 Structure and Agency: On Bronze Age Tell Settlement in the Carpathian Basin1
• 4 Power Requires Others: “Institutional Realities” and the Significance of Individual Power in Late Prehistoric Europe
• 5 “And Make Some Other Man Our King”: Labile Elite Power Structures in Early Iron Age Europe
• 6 Societies against the Chief? Re-Examining the Value of “Heterarchy” as a Concept for Studying European Iron Age Societies
• 7 Peasants, Agricultural Intensification, and Collective Action in Premodern States
• 8 The Spread of Scribal Literacy in Han China: All along the Watchtowers
• 9 Confronting Leviathan: Some Remarks on Resistance to the State in Precapitalist Societies: The Case of Early Medieval Northern Iberia
• 10 The Emergence of Monte Albán: A Social Innovation That Lasted a Millennium
• 11 Dispersing Power: The Contentious, Egalitarian Politics of the Salado Phenomenon in the Hohokam Region of the U.S. Southwest
• 12 The Perplexing Heterarchical Complexity of New Guinea Fisher-Forager Polities at Contact
• 13 Restoring Disorder: Thoughts on the Past and Future of a Politically and Socially Conscious Archaeology
• Index