What was Erlitou? Social Transformations from the Longshan Period to the Erlitou Period in a Network Perspective

Summary

This article detaches Erlitou from the paradigm of "state formation", and argues for an alternative approach: investigating the continuities and shifts in the multiple networks of politics, ideologies, and economics from the Longshan period to the Erlitou period. The development of political networks featured massive population relocations into the Luoyang basin to stabilize the new social order in the Erlitou polity. Transformed political and ethnographic patterns went hand in hand with changes in Erlitou’s funerary rituals, which bolstered the legitimacy and authority of the Erlitou polity. Moreover, societies participating in the exchange of elite assemblages shifted their networks as Erlitou rose to prominence, which fundamentally changed the patterns of economic activity.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage