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This volume illustrates how much the study of social anthropologists has encompassed other, non-primitive societies: rural Italy, urban Africa, village politics in India and the smaller ex-colonial territories of Fiji and Mauritius are just some of the areas covered by the book. The position and contribution of British community studies is also examined, illustrating how micro-sociology can be made relevant to macro-sociology. Originally published 1966.
Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology. Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of archaeology. This book provides an in-depth conceptualisation of social complexity as the core concept in archaeological and interdisciplinary studies of the past, integrating approaches from complex systems thinking, archaeological theory, social practice theory, and sustainability and resilience science. The book covers a long-term perspective of social change and stability, tracing the full cycle of complexity trajectories, from emergence and development to collapse, regeneration and transformation of communities and societies. It offers a broad vision on social complexity as a core concept for the present and future development of archaeology. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field of archaeology and related disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, as well as the natural sciences studying human-environment interactions in the past.
Part of a resurgence in the comparative study of ancient societies, this book presents a variety of methods and approaches to comparative analysis through the examination of wide-ranging case studies. Each chapter is a comparative study, and the diverse topics and regions covered in the book contribute to the growing understanding of variation and change in ancient complex societies. The authors explore themes ranging from urbanization and settlement patterns, to the political strategies of kings and chiefs, to the economic choices of individuals and households. The case studies cover an array of geographical settings, from the Andes to Southeast Asia. The authors are leading archaeologists whose research on early empires, states, and chiefdoms is at the cutting edge of scientific archaeology.
Few would doubt that social science is in serious need of a new conceptual framework for the study of human organizations. For some time now such a framework has been sought in the notion that societies are functional systems, in which the individual sectors--economy, religion, government and so on--can be seen as subsystems dependent on each other and integrated within a whole. But in spite of the major advances in research which modern systems theory has brought about, it is based inevitably on a priori assumptions which are often at variance with the facts, or require the facts to be interpreted in a special way to fit the theory. In this book Smith puts forward an alternative framework, by developing the concept of the corporation. While most people nowadays think of corporations as large industrial enterprises, Smith employs the term in its older, Common Law sense of an established social unit. By studying the components of social life in this way, as discrete entities rather than as parts of a cohering system, corporation theory is able to treat social phenomena empirically and so avoid the unverifiable ideology-laden postulates of the traditional system-model. Corporations and Society is made up principally of key articles written by Smith over several decades. To these have been added three newly written, unpublished pieces of which the last--a penetrating essay on the Caribbean--is one of the longest in the book. Covering such wide-ranging topics as lineage systems, government, stratification, law, race relations and pluralism, these essays by a distinguished anthropologist show how extensively, and with what power of analysis, the theory can be applied.
From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times
Providing a guide to the ideas, arguments and history of the discipline, this volume discusses human social and cultural life in all its diversity and difference. Theory, ethnography and history are combined in over 230 entries on topics