Warfare and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southeast Asia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists have long been interested in the development of social complexity and associated institutions of governance and political control. Within Southeast Asia, historical societies such as Angkor provide insights around premodern state societies. This paper deals with evidence from the late prehistoric era, addressing the role of coercive power and warfare in the emergence of early state-like institutions. The paper features data from the Co Loa site of present-day Vietnam. The ancient settlement provides a context of emergent sociopolitical complexity that was unprecedented in Southeast Asia, one that was shaped by both its geographic positioning as well as its interactions with societies of neighboring regions. How did leaders and rulers emerge, consolidating political power? How did societies develop novel forms of social organizations? How did militarism, coercive power, and organized violence contribute to these momentous changes? For the Co Loa case, political uses of violence, in combination with its disruptive effects, led to movements of people and large-scale shifts in social topographies on both local and regional levels. Ultimately, the paper considers not only how wars made states in Southeast Asia but also how states made use of war.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Warfare and the Origins of Political Control   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35715.0