Comparative Approaches to Complexity in the Tropics

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Macrae.

Archaeologists have continuously struggled with understanding the complexity exhibited within relic agricultural practices. In this paper, we will explore a comparative approach to addressing this dilemma using cases studies from the charter states of Southeast Asia (CE 800-1400) and the classic Maya kingdoms of Mesoamerica (CE 250-900). Special emphasis is placed upon the use of intensive practices and their resiliency within the agricultural strategy. Comparing the similarities and differences...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. Timothy Beach. Samantha Krause.

A large wedge of our planet is tropical, and archaeology and natural science have long histories of tropical research. But we still know comparatively little about human interactions in the tropics while rates of land and water use change that expunge ecological and archaeological records are accelerating. In this paper we focus on evidence for ancient wetland management in the Maya World, especially around the evidence for water chemistry in multiple watersheds of northern Belize. Here we...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Madeleine Yakal. Stephen Acabado.

Elite formation and development of cultural complexity in the Philippines have been considered to be a product of long-distance trade and interaction beginning at ca. AD 1000. Proxy indicators for this political shift have been based on increasing centralization of pottery production and consumption. In the highlands, however, we see an alternative basis for elite formation; one based on access to wet rice and the ability to sponsor feasts. In this paper, we explore the development of social...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adrian Chase.

Many large cities of the ancient Maya, occupied in the Classic Period from 300 to 900 CE, had limited or no access to permanent bodies of water. Instead, these low-density urban centers focused on harnessing the full extent of the seasonal rainfall their tropical environment provided. Previous research has highlighted the complex water management practices of the ancient Maya through their built environment and the sequestration of water into reservoirs (constructed feature sealed with clay or...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alison Carter. Cristina Castillo. Rachna Chhay. Tegan McGillivray. Yijie Zhuang.

This paper presents the results from the 2015 excavation of a house mound within the Angkor Wat enclosure. Although household archaeology is well established in other tropical locations, notably Mesoamerica, few households have been closely examined in Southeast Asia. In this paper, we discuss some of the preliminary findings from our excavation of an Angkorian house mound, as well as research on the use of space around the mound and the potential for household gardens. A comparison with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kendall Hills.

Early archaeological discourse depicts tropical environments as unsuitable loci for the emergence of the world’s “great” civilizations. Scholars now know this to be demonstrably untrue, as evidence of early complex societies with state level organization has been identified in tropical environments throughout the world. Like their counterparts of the more arid zones, amalgamation and increased integration would have been of great importance to early tropical states. In general, states seek to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Leppard. Scott Fitzpatrick.

The appearance of megaliths, monumental architecture, large-scale earthworks, and sculpture in many prehistoric island societies in the Pacific and Mediterranean is conspicuously absent from the insular Caribbean. From the latte stones, columnar basalt complexes, artificial islands, Yapese stone money, Easter Island moai, marae, and earthworks found across Micronesia and Polynesia to the talayots, taulas, sesi, and Maltese ‘temples’ of the Mediterranean, small and sometimes remote islands...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Isendahl. Elizabeth Graham.

Drawing from our own research on food, water, and waste management, we describe the development and characteristics of settled life in the humid neotropics with a view to isolating features or patterns that reflect sustainable trajectories. Because mainstream concepts of “the city” tend to be structured by urban experiences that lie outside the tropics and are recentist in outlook, we suggest that there are urban (and peri-urban) phenomena in the deep past of the neotropics that tend to be...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob Gold.

This essay uses a comparative approach to investigate the practice of "state hedging" deployed by various peoples moving in and out of the margins of large-scale historical states. Among these peoples are the Kuy ethnic group whose communities in north-central Cambodia have invited me to study them as their traditional forests rapidly disappear. Kuy methods of "state hedging" and the outcomes of pursuing this practice will be compared with the use of similar tactics by peoples in Africa and the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gyles Iannone.

Although comparative studies have been criticized in recent years, especially within the more post-modern corners of anthropology, cross-cultural studies continue to have value for exploring the sometimes congruent, and at other times unique, manner that different communities choose to confront analogous socio-ecological issues. The Socio-Ecological Entanglement in Tropical Societies (SETS) project is a long-term endeavor aimed at promoting the cross-cultural, transdisciplinary examination of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Klassen. Terry Lustig. Damian Evans.

Further research to understand what makes agricultural and water management systems resilient is critical for the continued existence and growth of sustainable communities today, especially in urban contexts. Resiliency is a very useful concept for understanding how complex systems, but can be difficult to operationalize. In this paper, we argue that adaptive capacity can be used as a middle-range theory that allows archaeologists to engage in interdisciplinary discourses of system-level...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leah Marajh.

Water management practices have been instrumental in the rise and collapse of many complex societies. Informed through case studies from South India and Sri Lanka this paper explores the importance of water management in their developmental trajectories during the Chola (848-1279 CE) and Sinhalese Empires (377 BCE-1310 CE). Initial conditions that led to the impetus for water management include environment and climate changes. Continued growth and prosperity relied on the development and use of...