Why did people give up living in egalitarian societies for life in state-ordered, stratified
society? Under the neoevolutionist paradigm of the New Archaeology, one seeks the origin …

An up-to-date and critical analysis of how archaeologists study past societies, Archaeologies
of Complexity addresses the nature of contemporary archaeology and the study of social …

Archaeologists' reconstructions of paths to complexity have all too often excluded complex
hunter-gatherers. However, recent theoretical contributions and long-term field research …

In 1992 the two of us were colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We had lots
of talks and debates about archaeology at lunch, between classes, and in each other's …

The fifth millennium BCE was a period of rapid social change. One of the key factors was the
developments in technology which led to the rise of the metals industry. Archaeological finds …

Political economy is traditionally associated with the study of state-level societies,
particularly those of the mercantile and capitalist eras. However, social scientists have …

The tension between hierarchy and communalism is a prominent feature of social life in
transegalitarian societies. How are hierarchy and communalism combined in these …

While some researchers continue to focus fruitfully on traditional issues, in recent years new
perspectives, some strongly revisionist, have developed within European Iron Age …

The emergence and development of complex societies in the Amazonian lowlands has
been historically debated as a function of the relationships between human populations and …

The concept of complexity demands theoretical elaboration, especially in regard to
decentralized social formations such as the Bronze Age chiefdoms of northern Europe …