Affective Foundations: The Dissolution of Human Sacrifice under the Western Zhou, 1046-771 BC

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The transition from the Late Shang state (ca. 1300 – 1046 BC) based in Anyang to the Western Zhou state (ca. 1046 – 771 BC) founded in Shaanxi represents one of the most significant geopolitical and cultural transformations in ancient China. The conquest of the Shang by a Zhou-led alliance precipitated in the elimination of the human sacrificial rituals central to Shang hegemonic practices. I argue the rejection of these ritualized acts of violence by the Western Zhou is grounded in the affective ties produced within the extensive social networks situated within the Zhou homeland in Northwest China. Through these networks, the Zhou fostered a sociopolitical system founded on the social relationships and shared traditions amongst a diverse coalition of groups spread over an expansive geographic area. The dissolution of large state-sponsored human sacrifices under the Western Zhou was the result of a Zhou strategy of governance that relied on maintaining the alliances forged with these groups. To analyze this dissolution, this paper employs a comparative analysis of Shang and Zhou burial and ritual practices and a GIS-based analysis of the changes within the networks of interaction in North China during the late Shang and early Western Zhou periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32875