Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction / Edition 1

by Edward M. Schortman, Patricia A. Urban

Overview

Archaeological research on interregional interaction processes has recently reasserted itself after a long hiatus following the eclipse of diffusion studies. This "rebirth" was marked not only by a sudden increase in publications that were focused on interac­ tion questions, but also by a diversity of perspectives on past contacts. To perdurable interests in warfare were added trade studies by the late 196Os. These viewpoints, in turn, were rapidly joined in the late 1970s by a wide range of intellectual schemes stimulated by developments in French Marxism (referred to in various ways; termed political ideology here) and sociology (Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems model). Researchers ascribing to the aforementioned intellectual frameworks were united in their dissatisfaction with attempts to explain sociopolitical change that treated in­ dividual cultures or societies as isolated entities. Only by reconstructing the complex intersocietal networks in which polities were integrated-the natures of these ties, who mediated the connections, and the political, economic, and ideological significance of the goods and ideas that moved along them-could adequate ex­ planations of sociopolitical shifts be formulated. Archaeologists seemed to be re­ discovering in the late twentieth century the importance of interregional contacts in processes of sociopolitical change. The diversity of perspectives that resulted seemed to be symptomatic of both an uncertainty of how best to approach this topic and the importance archaeologists attributed to it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306440687
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	06/30/1992
Series:	Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
Edition description:	1992
Pages:	259
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

1 • The Place of Interaction Studies in Archaeological Thought.- 2 • The Political Economy of Core—Periphery Systems.- 3 • Culture and Exchange in Postclassic Oaxaca: A World-System Perspective.- 4 • Pre-Hispanic Interregional Interaction in Southern Mexico: The Valley of Oaxaca and the Ejutla Valley.- 5 • The Transcaucasian “Periphery” in the Bronze Age: A Preliminary Formulation.- 6 • Interaction and Isolation: The Empty Spaces in Panregional Political and Economic Systems.- 7 • Long-Distance Contacts, Elite Aspirations, and the Age of Discovery in Cosmological Context.- 8 • Tradition, Identity, and Change beyond the Roman Frontier.- 9 • Ethnicity and Adaptation: The Late Period-Cara Occupation in Northern Highland Ecuador.- 10 • Central Mexico’s Influences in Jalisco and Nayarit during the Classic Period.- 11 • Current Trends in Interaction Research.

Editorial Reviews

Revised and updated versions of papers presented at a 1987 symposium at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in Toronto, as well as contributions of scholars who were unable to attend the meeting, operate from world systems, political ideology, and warfare perspectives to investigate and explain the significance of intersocietal interaction in processes of sociopolitical change. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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