Chapter 13: Reconstructing Social and Political Systems of the Past
What Students Should Learn From Chapter 13
1.
The ‘Group’ is the basic social unit. Status, gender and kinship determine how the group operates.
2.
Gender is a culturally based interpretation while sex is biologically derived.
3.
Archaeologists can identify large spatial and temporal differences in material goods and technology.
Using ethnographic research, they can relate certain tasks to different divisions of labor, and
correlate those to female and male decision making. Thus, a greater understanding of these larger
social and economic patterns is gained when the patterns of male and female activities are
investigated.
4.
Inferring what women and men did is difficult from the archaeological record. Bioarchaeology can
give insights into differences in dietary matters and workloads, but often strong empirical
generalizations of historically linked ethnographic analogies are needed.
5.
Socially recognized relationships through which individuals are related by ties of real or imagined
descent and marriage are called Kinship networks. Like gender, kinship plays a role in
understanding the choices people made in the distant past.
6.
House placement and spacing reflect social grouping patterns, while genetic studies of human
remains can provide information on post-marital residence.
7.
Culturally determined criteria establish social status, Status refers to the privileges, rights and
duties that delineate interpersonal relations.
8.
‘Achieved status’ in society comes from the accomplishments of an individual in life, while
‘ascribed status’ is attached to the individual at birth. A key element to understanding political
organization is to recognize the differences between the two.
9.
In egalitarian societies, all people have equal access to important resources, and high positions are
acquired through achieved status.
10.
Ranked societies exhibit a hierarchical structure, with unequal access to basic resources. Ascribed
status is in place at birth and assures a ranked order of privilege.
11.
Ranked and egalitarian societies are often studied by examining mortuary remains. These studies
assume that the patterning of funerary remains reflect the status(es) of the individual in life.
12.
Trade networks reflect the geographic extent of economic patterns, non-residential groups, and
political authority. Trade can be inferred by determining whether artifacts are made of locally
available raw materials or from materials far distant to their recovery location.
13.
Obsidian, clay and temper source studies can reveal the spatial scale of the economic or political
organization.
Chapter 13 Lecture Suggestions
1.
Examine the roles of men, women, and children in the ethnographic account of your choice.
Illustrate the differences and similarities in activities, and which appear to be dominated by males
and which by females. Address the role of children in the archaeological record through analogy
with the ethnographic literature.
2.
Use ethnographic information to illustrate the differences between matrilocal and partilocal
residences. Explore the concept of bride price and bride service in determining residence patterns.
3.
Compare and contrast different kinship systems. For example, examine how a hypothetical
bilateral descent group of grandparents, parents and grandchildren compares to the same lineage
interpreted from both a patrilineal and matrilineal descent group view.
4.
Explore the concept of the change through time from egalitarian to ranked societies. Examine the
potential causes and possible archaeological evidence for that change. Include information about
increasing social complexity in rank development (see also chapter 15 of the text).
5.
Examine prehistoric trade patterns associated with the Hopewell or later Mississippian Cultures.
Include information about trade in obsidian, Knife River flint, mica, copper, and ocean shells.
6.
Present a lecture on the various obsidian sources in North America. Include an XRF analysis of each
source, and indicate which trace elements work best as indicators of point of origin. Link the
identification of obsidian from archaeological sources to possible prehistoric trade routes or
networks.