Social and Political Organization (Other Keyword)
226-250 (366 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Developments through Time on the South Coast of Peru: In Memory of Patrick Carmichael" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For nearly 600 years the Ica society flourished in the vast deserts of the Peruvian south coast. Rising to considerable regional influence during the Late Intermediate period (ca. 1000–1476 CE), little is known of its origins or later years. Our recent excavations in the lower Ica Valley have begun to...
New Views on the Ancient City of Cihuatán (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reconstructing the Political Organization of Pre-Columbian Nicaragua" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since half a century ago, it has been recognized that the Early Postclassic in the territory of western El Salvador represents a sweeping departure from its Classic period antecedents, as seen in the type site of Cihuatán. Its nature has been variously described as generically Mexican, or central Mexican and Gulf...
Non-standard and Shifting Sociopolitical Organizations at Xcalumkín (Western Puuc Region), AD 650–950 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the publication of the influential “Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens” (Martin and Grube 2000) along with the convincing analysis of the Classic Maya political universe in terms of city-states (Grube 2000), a Classic Maya political regime model seemed to have been set up, relying on divine kingship based more on the domination of people than of...
Northern Gallinazo: A Transformational View from the Lambayeque Region, Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gallinazo sociopolitical organization is rarely considered outside the Virú Valley heartland. My recent work in the Lambayeque region of northern coastal Peru brings to light several anomalies that force reevaluation of long-standing ideas. Today, there are several persistent yet mistaken observations that continue to skew the perception of prehispanic Andean...
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two decades of strontium isotope and aDNA research on Central European Neolithic cemetery populations have consistently interpreted patrilocality, which is now a foregone conclusion. This paper questions those interpretations from a social anthropological perspective. Models are presented for interpreting strontium isotope ratios and aDNA that consider the...
Nuevos datos sobre los colgantes de lapidaria verde y sus contextos arqueológicos en Costa Rica (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Museo del Jade y de la Cultura Precolombina del Instituto Nacional de Seguros, exhibe 2040 piezas arqueológicas de piedras verdes (*jades). A pesar de la limitada información contextual, posee un gran potencial para comprender la manufactura y uso de los colgantes de piedras verdes en Costa Rica. A partir de la última...
On the Resonant Signatures of Archaeological Materials: Beyond Lithics (2025)
This is an abstract from the "<html>Twenty Thousand Leagues (and Years!) under the Sea:<i> </i>Exploring the Place of Seashores in Prehistoric Socio-economic Systems</html>" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the last decade, several articles have detailed the possibility of identifying archaeological sites containing lithics remotely using acoustic resonance. However, limited research has been conducted into understanding resonant signatures of...
Oversized Pitstructures in the Central Mesa Verde Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500-725) in the northern U.S. Southwest was typified by new technologies, new social and religious practices, and groups of people from distinct cultural backgrounds living in close proximity for the first time. In this sociopolitical milieu, new architectural forms...
Overview of Archaeological Investigations in the Middle Usumacinta Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project started investigations in the Department of Tabasco, Mexico, in 2017. Its main objectives are to examine the relationship between the residents of the Maya lowlands and those of the Olmec region and to trace social change during the Preclassic...
Pacopampa and the Chavin Cult (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Before the extensive work at Pacopampa directed by Yuji Seki and Daniel Morales, I hypothesized that Pacopampa was linked to Chavin de Huantar by its involvement in the Chavin cult, perhaps as a branch oracle or shrine....
Pacopampa and the Development of Social Complexity in the Jaén Region (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Social Dynamics in the North Highlands of Peru during the Formative Period: Pacopampa project’s Contribution for Understanding the Early Complex Societies in the Andes" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent research in the Jaén region of the eastern Andean slopes of Northern Peru indicates that this zone was closely linked to cultural developments occurring in the Central Andean highlands during the Formative Period....
Paleoecology of a River Junction: Preliminary Discoveries of Flora and Fauna Analysis at Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Repositioning Altar de Sacrificios on the Ancient Maya Landscape" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios is uniquely situated where the Chixoy/Salinas and Pasión rivers meet to form the Usumacinta. A focus of the Altar de Sacrificios Archaeological Project is the way ancient peoples adapted to this unique setting, including how the site settlement changed as the river systems shifted...
Partialities of Power at Uci, Yucatan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beginning in 2008, the Uci/Cansahcab Regional Integration Project has investigated the causes and consequences of the construction of an 18km long causeway that connected four ancient Maya sites with monumental architecture in the Late Preclassic period. This paper presents the results of recent excavations at Ucí, the largest site along the causeway and the...
Participation, Choice, and Institutional Change across the Eurasian Bronze Age (2024)
This is an abstract from the "In Defense of Everything! Constructive Engagements with Graeber and Wengrow’s Provocative Contribution" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Theories of “complex social organization” have long linked institutional formations to increased concentrations of power, centralization, and inequality. However, for more than a decade, novel models of “non-uniform complexity”—wherein economic, social, ritual, and practical...
Pathways to Power for Classic Maya Sub-royal Elites (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. John Pohl’s research is groundbreaking in its analysis of the supporting characters in Mesoamerican royal courts. Secondary elites (including the nobles, priests, merchants, and artisans of the court) vied for power using innovative tactics that worked outside the traditional systems of inherited authority. Pohl’s...
Peeling Back the ‘Overburden’: Collaborative Projects Studying Middle Bronze Age Societies in the Körös-Region, Southeast Hungary (2018)
The transition to the Middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin encompassed a broad range of changes in material culture, settlement and social organization. Upon first glance, the Körös-Region was no different from its neighbours. Tell sites emerged, population increased, farming intensified, and people engaged in long distance trade. The international Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology (BAKOTA) project has studied this area through settlements and mortuary archaeology for over 11 years. Our...
Performative Aspects of Early Monumental Architecture at Late Bronze I Phlamoudhi-Vounari, Cyprus (2018)
The small (1 hectare) site of Phlamoudhi-Vounari was built in Late Cypriot IA:1 and abandoned early in Late Cypriot IIA, a lifespan of c. 200 years. This paper presents a 3D model and spatial analysis suggesting that the site functioned as a stage during community gatherings (and greeting visitors). Vounari’s plan is unique on Cyprus: a likely man-made, eight-meter-high mound topped with a sequence of superimposed structures. Initially built with open access to the summit from the higher south...
The Pithouse to Pueblo Transition, Mealing Facilities, and the Mogollon Mimbres Society (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Research Hot Off the Trowel in the Upper Gila and Mimbres Areas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mealing facilities include the tools (metates, manos), features (bins), and architecture (kivas, pueblo rooms) used in the process of grinding corn kernels and other materials at an archaeological site. The goal of this poster is to classify, catalog, and compare the properties of mealing facilities in the Mogollon Mimbres...
The Place of Coastlines in Prehistoric Systems Between the Lateglacial and Mesolithic Periods in Western France : Petrology's Contribution to Assessing the Spread of an Original Coastal Resource - Flint Pebbles. (2025)
This is an abstract from the "<html>Twenty Thousand Leagues (and Years!) under the Sea:<i> </i>Exploring the Place of Seashores in Prehistoric Socio-economic Systems</html>" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The LGM and Lateglacial coastal occupations of the Armorican Massif (western France), now submerged, are largely absent from our socio-economic models and considerations for these period. Despite the lack of direct evidence, yet current data...
Platform Mounds and Ethnographic Analogy Revisited: Defining the Functional Universe (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Why Platform Mounds? Part 2: Regional Comparisons and Tribal Histories" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological data from Southwest U.S. platform mound sites will likely not satisfactorily resolve the question of platform mound function and social organization. This is due to the ambiguities inherent in our data base and in our limited opportunities to excavate these features. Because of this, explanations given...
Political Organization of the Tiwanaku Polity: A View from Copacabana (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tiwanaku has been described as an expansive state by archaeologists working in the first half of the twentieth century. At that time, the idea of a powerful empire in Bolivian prehistory aided and reinforced the nationalistic political narrative. However, archaeological data does not...
Political Regimes at Calakmul (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The history of the Kanu’l dynasty and their Late Classic regime at Calakmul has been researched extensively since the 1990s. The most recent insights into the earlier episodes of Kanu’l politics have emphasized that their seat of power during the Early Classic was Dzibanche and that it was a powerful faction that took power in Calakmul in the early seventh...
Political Water: Hohokam Irrigation and Sociopolitical Organization in Canal System 2, Lower Salt River Valley, Central Arizona (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the publishing of Irrigation Communities: A Comparative Study in 1955, sociopolitical hierarchy has factored strongly in interpretations of irrigation system control. A lively debate has developed as to where control lies, ranging from a central authority (top-down) to water user cooperatives (bottom-up). Although Hohokam irrigation has appeared in that...
The Politics of Mud, Masonry and Landscape at the Aztec North Great House (2018)
The Aztec North great house is a monumental Chaco-era building at Aztec Ruins National Monument, in northern New Mexico. Its size, its shape and its dramatic hilltop siting all echo construction norms for other great houses at Chaco Canyon and its outliers, but excavation revealed a surprising set of architectural features. In addition to a fairly typical great house artifact assemblage, we found Chaco-style wall foundations and masonry veneers, but non-Chacoan adobe wall cores. Drawing on ideas...
Polity, collectivity and trade: a Mediterranean island across temporal and social boundaries (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Cooperative and Noncooperative Transitions in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the organization and control of trade on Sicily and the different forms of polities on Sicily during shifts across the traditional archaeological boundaries of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age. In other parts of Europe, these periods are currently conceptualized as going from more egalitarian,...