Pub Date : 2019-08-29DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5
Chelsea Fisher
How will archaeology contribute to agricultural sustainability? To address that question, this overview reflects on the diverse and complementary ways that archaeology has advanced our understanding of sustainable agriculture. Here, I assess recent archaeological research through the lens of the five principles of sustainable agriculture used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. These principles—efficiency, conservation, rural livelihoods, resilience, and governance—highlight the social and environmental dimensions of agricultural sustainability. By drawing on case studies from around the world, I show how archaeology is uniquely situated to examine the interactions of these social and environmental dimensions over long periods of time. Archaeology’s strongest conceptual contributions to sustainable agriculture are (1) its capacity to demonstrate that sustainability is historically contingent and (2) its attention to outcomes. If transformed into meaningful action, these contributions have the potential to advance modern agricultural sustainability and environmental justice initiatives. This overview is an invitation to clarify a plan for future research and outreach. It is an invitation to imagine what an archaeology for sustainable agriculture will look like and what it will accomplish.
{"title":"Archaeology for Sustainable Agriculture","authors":"Chelsea Fisher","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5","url":null,"abstract":"How will archaeology contribute to agricultural sustainability? To address that question, this overview reflects on the diverse and complementary ways that archaeology has advanced our understanding of sustainable agriculture. Here, I assess recent archaeological research through the lens of the five principles of sustainable agriculture used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. These principles—efficiency, conservation, rural livelihoods, resilience, and governance—highlight the social and environmental dimensions of agricultural sustainability. By drawing on case studies from around the world, I show how archaeology is uniquely situated to examine the interactions of these social and environmental dimensions over long periods of time. Archaeology’s strongest conceptual contributions to sustainable agriculture are (1) its capacity to demonstrate that sustainability is historically contingent and (2) its attention to outcomes. If transformed into meaningful action, these contributions have the potential to advance modern agricultural sustainability and environmental justice initiatives. This overview is an invitation to clarify a plan for future research and outreach. It is an invitation to imagine what an archaeology for sustainable agriculture will look like and what it will accomplish.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-09DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09135-8
Jerald D. Ek
While it is tempting to assume that empirical advancements inexorably lead to incremental improvement in our understanding of the past, the impact of ideas—even empirically untenable positions—often impede disciplinary progress. This paper examines the intellectual history of changing views of Classic Maya political organization, from the formulation of the “traditional synthesis” to contemporary debates. Although the traditional synthesis did not stand up to empirical evaluation, elements of the model continued to have substantive impact into the 21st century. This historical overview is part of a broader critique of ways we create and evaluate theories about the ancestral Maya past. With a century of archaeological research and the maturation of epigraphic research providing a rich empirical foundation, the successes or failures of the next generation of research will be governed by advancements in theory building and long overdue methodological reforms.
{"title":"The Inertia of Old Ideas: A Historical Overview of Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in the Study of Classic Maya Political Organization","authors":"Jerald D. Ek","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09135-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09135-8","url":null,"abstract":"While it is tempting to assume that empirical advancements inexorably lead to incremental improvement in our understanding of the past, the impact of ideas—even empirically untenable positions—often impede disciplinary progress. This paper examines the intellectual history of changing views of Classic Maya political organization, from the formulation of the “traditional synthesis” to contemporary debates. Although the traditional synthesis did not stand up to empirical evaluation, elements of the model continued to have substantive impact into the 21st century. This historical overview is part of a broader critique of ways we create and evaluate theories about the ancestral Maya past. With a century of archaeological research and the maturation of epigraphic research providing a rich empirical foundation, the successes or failures of the next generation of research will be governed by advancements in theory building and long overdue methodological reforms.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-18DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09134-9
John K. Millhauser, Lisa Overholtzer
This paper applies the interdisciplinary approaches of commodity chain, commodity circuit, and commodity network analyses—common in sociology, anthropology, and geography—to cotton cloth in the Aztec economy to demonstrate how these techniques can enrich archaeological understandings of ancient economies. Commodity chain analysis draws attention to social and economic dependencies that link people and processes along a production sequence and across wide geographic areas. Commodity circuits and commodity networks highlight the bundling of goods and knowledge in nonlinear and multidirectional flows, the relationships that link participants through these flows, and the flexible meanings and values of goods for participants. By applying these approaches to the archaeological study of cotton cloth in the Aztec economy, we show how they provide a holistic framework for studying goods that bridges the microscale (household) and macroscale (world system).
{"title":"Commodity Chains in Archaeological Research: Cotton Cloth in the Aztec Economy","authors":"John K. Millhauser, Lisa Overholtzer","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09134-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09134-9","url":null,"abstract":"This paper applies the interdisciplinary approaches of commodity chain, commodity circuit, and commodity network analyses—common in sociology, anthropology, and geography—to cotton cloth in the Aztec economy to demonstrate how these techniques can enrich archaeological understandings of ancient economies. Commodity chain analysis draws attention to social and economic dependencies that link people and processes along a production sequence and across wide geographic areas. Commodity circuits and commodity networks highlight the bundling of goods and knowledge in nonlinear and multidirectional flows, the relationships that link participants through these flows, and the flexible meanings and values of goods for participants. By applying these approaches to the archaeological study of cotton cloth in the Aztec economy, we show how they provide a holistic framework for studying goods that bridges the microscale (household) and macroscale (world system).","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-10DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09133-w
Shadreck Chirikure
This review draws from old and new archaeological data and takes interpretive flavor from indigenous African concepts to demonstrate that, within a context of local and external interfaces, Great Zimbabwe’s political economy was a mosaic rooted more in a mix of seasonally specific, household-based, compositional strategies of production and circulation and less in the redistribution of archaeologically low-frequency exotics from the Indian Ocean. An ideology based on the hierarchical triad of land, ancestors, and belief in God underwrote custodial rights and extractive powers that at times enabled rulers to access a share of productive, allocative, and circulative activities in their territories. Simultaneously, households and communities freely participated in the economy, often inside and outside state control and influence, demonstrating the individual, collective, mixed, embedded, and capillary nature of the political economy.
{"title":"New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe","authors":"Shadreck Chirikure","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09133-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09133-w","url":null,"abstract":"This review draws from old and new archaeological data and takes interpretive flavor from indigenous African concepts to demonstrate that, within a context of local and external interfaces, Great Zimbabwe’s political economy was a mosaic rooted more in a mix of seasonally specific, household-based, compositional strategies of production and circulation and less in the redistribution of archaeologically low-frequency exotics from the Indian Ocean. An ideology based on the hierarchical triad of land, ancestors, and belief in God underwrote custodial rights and extractive powers that at times enabled rulers to access a share of productive, allocative, and circulative activities in their territories. Simultaneously, households and communities freely participated in the economy, often inside and outside state control and influence, demonstrating the individual, collective, mixed, embedded, and capillary nature of the political economy.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-09DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09132-x
F. Klimscha
{"title":"New Research on the “Kings of Metal”: Systems of Social Distinction in the Copper Age of Southeastern Europe","authors":"F. Klimscha","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09132-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09132-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09132-x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52323192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-03-20DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09131-y
P. Sabloff
{"title":"The Political Agency of Royal Women: A Comparative Analysis of Eight Premodern States According to Societal Rules and Roles","authors":"P. Sabloff","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09131-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09131-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09131-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47262935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-03-16DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09130-z
Stephen A. Kowalewski
The last 20 years have seen advances in the understanding of city-states, especially in ancient Greece, where textual information fuels new theories about institutions and the ancient economy. Archaeological research makes significant contributions with data comparable across multiple city-states on settlement patterns, urban and rural development, political and ritual activities, and other materializations of institutionalized behavior. Using a new corpus of 74 city-states from Oaxaca, Mexico, I show that city-states differ from one another in patterned ways, and I argue that this variation depends on internal factors such as the social mode of production and external factors including place in regional and interregional exchange.
{"title":"Advances in City-State Research, with an Example from Mesoamerica","authors":"Stephen A. Kowalewski","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09130-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09130-z","url":null,"abstract":"The last 20 years have seen advances in the understanding of city-states, especially in ancient Greece, where textual information fuels new theories about institutions and the ancient economy. Archaeological research makes significant contributions with data comparable across multiple city-states on settlement patterns, urban and rural development, political and ritual activities, and other materializations of institutionalized behavior. Using a new corpus of 74 city-states from Oaxaca, Mexico, I show that city-states differ from one another in patterned ways, and I argue that this variation depends on internal factors such as the social mode of production and external factors including place in regional and interregional exchange.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-21DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6
N. Erb-Satullo
{"title":"The Innovation and Adoption of Iron in the Ancient Near East","authors":"N. Erb-Satullo","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52323167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-07DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09128-7
Colleen Zori
Metal production in the prehistoric Andes entailed an array of political, economic, and ritual relationships that are increasingly the focus of archaeological investigation. One theme directing recent research is the link between metallurgy and political organization, including the origins of metal production, its relationship to sociopolitical complexity, and how shifts in the organization of metal production reflect and shape diachronic political transformations. A second theme is the use of metals to identify and interrogate interregional connections. Patterns in the circulation of different alloys and metal isotopes, as well as the transfer of technology, provide insight into the shifting constellations of economic and political connections maintained by prehispanic Andean populations. A final theme is ritual and meaning in Andean metallurgy, where I explore how the stages of mining, extractive metallurgy, and the production of metal objects added multivalent layers of meaning and value to metal artifacts. Operating in distinct ways across time and space, metallurgy in the ancient Andes could stimulate political complexity, drive geopolitical expansion and the integration of new subject populations, differentiate individuals and groups, connect people to one another and to the landscape, and harness the power of the numinous.
{"title":"Extracting Insights from Prehistoric Andean Metallurgy: Political Organization, Interregional Connections, and Ritual Meanings","authors":"Colleen Zori","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09128-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09128-7","url":null,"abstract":"Metal production in the prehistoric Andes entailed an array of political, economic, and ritual relationships that are increasingly the focus of archaeological investigation. One theme directing recent research is the link between metallurgy and political organization, including the origins of metal production, its relationship to sociopolitical complexity, and how shifts in the organization of metal production reflect and shape diachronic political transformations. A second theme is the use of metals to identify and interrogate interregional connections. Patterns in the circulation of different alloys and metal isotopes, as well as the transfer of technology, provide insight into the shifting constellations of economic and political connections maintained by prehispanic Andean populations. A final theme is ritual and meaning in Andean metallurgy, where I explore how the stages of mining, extractive metallurgy, and the production of metal objects added multivalent layers of meaning and value to metal artifacts. Operating in distinct ways across time and space, metallurgy in the ancient Andes could stimulate political complexity, drive geopolitical expansion and the integration of new subject populations, differentiate individuals and groups, connect people to one another and to the landscape, and harness the power of the numinous.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-04DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09127-8
Matthew A. Peeples
Formal network analyses have a long history in archaeology but have recently seen a rapid florescence. Network models drawing on approaches from graph theory, social network analysis, and complexity science have been used to address a broad array of questions about the relationships among network structure, positions, and the attributes and outcomes for individuals and larger groups at a range of social scales. Current archaeological network research is both methodologically and theoretically diverse, but there are still many daunting challenges ahead for the formal exploration of social networks using archaeological data. If we can face these challenges, archaeologists are well positioned to contribute to long-standing debates in the broader sphere of network research on the nature of network theory, the relationships between networks and culture, and dynamics of social networks over the long term.
{"title":"Finding a Place for Networks in Archaeology","authors":"Matthew A. Peeples","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09127-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09127-8","url":null,"abstract":"Formal network analyses have a long history in archaeology but have recently seen a rapid florescence. Network models drawing on approaches from graph theory, social network analysis, and complexity science have been used to address a broad array of questions about the relationships among network structure, positions, and the attributes and outcomes for individuals and larger groups at a range of social scales. Current archaeological network research is both methodologically and theoretically diverse, but there are still many daunting challenges ahead for the formal exploration of social networks using archaeological data. If we can face these challenges, archaeologists are well positioned to contribute to long-standing debates in the broader sphere of network research on the nature of network theory, the relationships between networks and culture, and dynamics of social networks over the long term.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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