Ancient Greece
Social Structure and Evolution

This book applies anthropological concepts of social structure and evolutionary theory to Ancient Greece.

David B. Small (Author)

9780521895057, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 May 2019

284 pages, 46 b/w illus. 5 maps
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.58 kg

'… text is a highly specialized, scholarly offering and will make a valuable addition to collections with strong sections on ancient history and archaeology.' D. C. Kierdorf, Choice

This book examines the development of ancient Greek civilization through a path-breaking application of social scientific theories. David B. Small charts the rise of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations and the unique characteristics of the later classical Greeks through the lens of ancient social structure and complexity theory, opening up new ideas and perspectives on these societies. He argues that Minoan and Mycenaean institutions evolved from elaborate feasting, and that the genesis of Greek colonization was born from structural chaos in the eighth century. Small isolates distinctions between Iron Age Crete and the rest of the Greek world, focusing on important differences in social structure. His book differs from others on Ancient Greece, highlighting the perpetuation of classical Greek social structure into the middle years of the Roman Empire, and concluding with a comparison of the social structure of classical Greece to that of the classical Maya civilization.

1. My analytical frame
2. The Ancient Greek landscape
3. The Neolithic in Greece
4. Developments c.3200–2200 BCE
5. The beginning of change and the evolution of a Koine
6. Changes in the latter part of the second millennium BCE
7. The eleventh to eighth centuries: from collapse to created chaos
8. A brave new world: the new structure and characteristics of its emergence
9. Developments after the rise of Macedon
10. The Cretan difference
11. The sweep of things: the larger picture of the evolution of Ancient Greece
12. Greece is not alone: the small polity evolutionary characteristics of the ancient Greeks and other past cultures.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of architecture [AMX], Landscape art & architecture [AMV], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG], History of art: pre-history [ACC]