STATE FORMATION Domestication in East Asia Major Crops rice and millet Rice is a very important world resource today Wild Ancestor to rice Oryza rufipogon Thrives in seasonally flooded areas Early domestication probably included dam construction The point of this is to expand flooded lands Southern China o Rice domesticated in Yangtze Huai River Valleys o Water caltrop fox nut also grow in flooded fields o Animal Domestication dogs pigs water buffalo Northern China o Domesticated millet in Yellow River Valley o Millet is drought resistant o Domesticated Animals Pigs possibly chickens Earliest Pottery o Xianrendong Cave China 20 000 years ago o Present in pre agricultural societies o Few sites in this early time Pottery in East Asia o 10 000 years ago H G societies living in semi permanent settlements produced pottery o Jomon societies in Japan 13 000 2 500 years ago elaborate pottery East Asian Farmers o Earliest rice Yangtze Huai River Valley o Pengtoushan China 9 000 years ago o Huai River region o Jiahu China 9 000 8 000 years ago Crane bone flutes o Earlier Millet Cishan Northern China 10 000 years ago found Farming Societies Hemudu Southern China Village based on rice cultivation Houses on stilts over river Domesticated animals dogs pigs water buffalo Social Life of Farmers o Very large scale excavations to understand social life o Early agriculturalists viewed as matrilineal clans power stayed with mother passed to daughter o Women played major role in selection and planting of crops o Young women buried with elaborate mortuary artifacts Development of Complex Societies Institutionalized power Centralized government Defining Social Complexity Relatively recent development Form of authority varies Focus in archaeological research Centralized Authority It is important for supposedly Organization of many people living together Technological development Political complexity results in Increased social inequality Limits individual agency Social inequality o Part of every society o Not a single trajectory to emergence of inequality archaeological perspective Archaeological Perspective o Morgan and Childe o Civilization inevitable next step o Assume progressive advancement o Today archaeologists interested in what pushes societies to inequality good luck o Increase population resource stress and competition Legitimacy in Archaeology for resources How did centralized authority gain legitimacy Legitimacy when power of authority is accepted To what degree does legitimacy of authority stem from consensus or coercion Consensus Individuals believe in the power of central authority Coercion People are forced to accept authority Categorizing Complexity Framework for guiding research Does not encompass all variation Provides models for development of complexity Societies Egalitarian Ranked Stratified State Egalitarian Societies Identifies differences in status o Differences in status are based on a combination of skill with subsistence activities age and gender differences o Production occurs within household o Each house performs relatively the same production o Exchange often based on reciprocity o Responding to positive action with another positive action o There are many positions of prestige Ranked Societies socialism o Hierarchy based on attribute birth order o Firstborn is ranked over siblings o Few positions of prestige o No real power with positions o Collect and redistribute goods rather than consume and exploit o Chiefs o Equal access to key resources food shelter socialism Stratified Society capitalism o Not equal access to key resources o Access tightly linked to prestige position o Limited positions of prestige o Characterized by growth of exploitation o Division of labor institutionalized slavery o Many households and kinships State Societies o Hierarchy moves from kinship to government o Use power to maintain hierarchy o Access to key resourced dictated by centralized political power o Population control through o Defined boundaries developed legal systems o Military and police forces o Taxation o Supra kin communities Building off the state Empires Expansion of state society Political entity brings together diverse societies under one ruler Communication between core and peripheral regions Resources move from periphery to core Archaeology of Empires Covers vast geographic area How did core maintain power Linchpins of empire Communication and force Roads military camps patterns of skeletal trauma Complexity Without the State Pre State Socieities o Political complexity o Lack fully developed centralized government o Stonehenge o Easter Island o Chaco Canyon