Chiefdoms
Power, Economy, and Ideology

These eleven case studies of different chiefdoms examine how ruling elites retain and legitimize their power.

Timothy K. Earle (Edited by)

9780521448963, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 April 1993

356 pages, 21 b/w illus. 10 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.575 kg

"Chiefdoms is a welcome addition to recent studies of cultural evolution." American Anthropologist

The study of chiefdoms has moved from a preoccupation with their formal characteristics to a concern with their dynamics as political institutions. The contributors to this volume are interested in how ruling elites retain power through control over production and exchange, and then legitimize that control through an elaborate ideology. The eleven case studies look at particular chiefdoms, originating in specific historical conditions. Despite obvious differences between the chiefdoms, certain common underlying processes are revealed. The collection recognizes how complex and interdependent the sources of power in society are, as well as the forces of instability that constantly threaten to tear the society apart. Chiefdoms offers a rich and varied interpretation of sociopolitical power.

l. The evolution of chiefdoms Timothy Earle
2. Chiefdoms, states, and systems of social evolution Kristian Kristiansen
3. The pattern of change in British prehistory Richard Bradley
4. Property rights and the evolution of chiefdoms Timothy Earle
5. Lords of the waste: predation, pastoral production, and the process of stratification among the Eastern Tuaregs Candelario Saenz
6. Chiefship and competitive involution: the Marquesas Islands of eastern Polynesia Patrick Kirch
7. Trajectories towards social complexity in the later prehistory of the Mediterranean Antonio Gilman
8. Chiefdoms to city-states: the Greek experience Yale Ferguson
9. Contrasting patterns of Mississippian development Vincas Steponaitis
l0. Demography, surplus, and inequality: early political formations in highland Mesoamerica Gary Feinman
11. Pre-Hispanic chiefdom trajectories in Mesoamerica, Central America, and northern South America Robert Drennan.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]