Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa (New Directions in Archaeology) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521630746 ISBN 13: 9780521630740

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Recent critiques of neoevolutionary formulations that focus primarily on the development of powerful hierarchies have called for broadening the empirical base for complex society studies. Redressing the neglect of sub-Saharan examples in comparative discussions on complex society, this book considers how case material from the region can enhance our understanding of the nature, origins and development of complexity. The archaeological, historical and anthropological case materials are relevant to a number of recent concerns, revealing how complexity has emerged and developed in a variety of ways. Contributors engage important theoretical issues, including the continuing influence of deeply embedded evolutionary notions in archaeological concepts of complexity, the importance of alternative modes of complex organization such as flexible hierarchies, multiple overlapping hierarchies, and horizontal differentiation, and the significance of different forms of power. The distinguished list of contributors include historians, archaeologists and anthropologists.

About this title

Book Description

Criticising the popular view about the progressive development of powerful hierarchies led by chiefs and kings, this book offers evidence from case studies in sub-Saharan Africa supporting the idea that complexity has emerged and developed in a variety of ways. It includes contributions from historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists.

Review

"...certainly warrents careful consideration by anyone with an interest in the development of political complexity...Especially notable are what it has to say about research strategies in very large, but largely unknown, regions; the interplay between ethnography, oral tradition, and archaeological research; and the contributions regionally-focused archaeology can make to wider theoretical debates...I should stress this volume's inherent value as a representation of our growing knowledge of the diverse richness of world archaeological history." Canadian Journal of Archaeology "This important book deserves a wide readership, for it deomonstrates how much the rich archaeological and historical record of Africa has to offer. Strange that so many prominent archaeological theoreticians have ignored the African past! They can no longer afford to do so." International Journal of African Historical Studies "Overall, archaeologists, ethnologists, and political scientists will find it stimulating reading." Jrnl of Field Archaeology

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521630746
• ISBN 13: 9780521630740
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186
• Editor: McIntosh Susan Keech