Sociopolitical Networks and the Transformation of Southern Appalachian Societies, A.D. 700-1400

Summary

This paper investigates how processes of societal transformation, including the emergence of sociopolitical hierarchies and socioeconomic inequalities, are shaped by the scale and structure of social networks. Across Southern Appalachia, during more than seven centuries of population growth and sociopolitical change, two distinct regional political traditions emerged in what are today northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee. Employing data on social signaling practices as materialized in ceramic traditions and ritual paraphernalia, this study compares changes to network topologies across the two regions to contextualize differences in long-term sociopolitical development. Using formal network analytical methods, this paper tracks the historical development of network structures to evaluate the emergence, and underlying organization, of two distinct sociopolitical traditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14867