The Heterarchical Life and Spatial Analyses of Historical Buddhist Temples in the Chiang Saen Basin, Northern Thailand

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The concept of social heterarchy was first incorporated as an alternative approach to examining the sociopolitical organization of early settlements in the Southeast Asia region, particularly pre-state societies. However, applications of heterarchy are somewhat limited to archaeological research on social development, sociopolitical organization, and social landscape in Southeast Asian state societies. To expand the applications of heterarchy, we incorporate space syntax and GIS angular and viewshed analyses to understand how sociopolitical organization and interaction were arranged through spatial patterns and organizations of the historical Buddhist temples in the Chiang Saen Basin. This paper demonstrates the complex relationship and interaction between various historical Chiang Saen social groups through the combination of conventional and nonconventional spaces, shared street networks, and visibility across time. We suggest that these apparent spatial characteristics demonstrate the heterarchical form. The heterarchical spatial system refers to the hybrid, diversified, horizontal, and nonhierarchical relationship of spatial patterns that tend to have open accessibility and integrated, symmetrical organization of spaces, and reflect the organic solidarity of communities. The approach discussed here provides a basic understanding of the complex organization among sociopolitical groups of the historical communities in Northern Thailand, emphasizing the co-occurrence of hierarchical and heterarchical forms of governance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35827.0