Explaining Early Complex Society Development in Central America and Northern South America: Patterns, Variation, and Scales of Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Centralizing Central America: New Evidence, Fresh Perspectives, and Working on New Paradigms" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The early complex societies of Central America and northern South America were once widely recognized for their organizational and cultural diversity. Since that time, greater emphasis has been placed on their shared cultural traits, as revealed through genetic and linguistic data and patterns in material culture—the variation that was once so strongly lauded is now often seen as nothing more than regional manifestations of an overarching theme. But while research into these cultural affinities has enhanced our understanding of early complex societies in this part of the world, it has also led to unitary explanations of how those societies developed. Such explanations do not do justice to the rich organizational diversity that is evident in the archaeological record and obviates any opportunity to learn from what it can teach us about the processes of social change. Approaches are needed that account for this variation, and that distinguish between organizational and cultural processes, focus attention on the scales of analysis at which the processes of social change most strongly operate, and allow for a wider range of explanatory factors than what overarching, unitary explanations require.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Centralizing Central America: New Evidence, Fresh Perspectives, and Working on New Paradigms   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38548.0