The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States

by Li Liu

Overview

The Yellow River valley of China, during the period ca. 7000-1500, saw the transformation of egalitarian societies into stratified chiefdoms giving rise to early states. This book examines that transformation, emphasizing the interplay of many factors affecting these processes, such as climatic fluctuation, population movements, inter-group competition, warfare, and long-distance exchange of valuables.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521811842
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/06/2005
Series:	New Studies in Archaeology
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	7.17(w) x 10.04(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Li Liu is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at La Trobe University. She has published various articles on the Chinese Neolithic and is the author of State Formation in Early China (with Xingcan Chen) (Duckworth, 2003).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; 1. Setting the scene; 2. The changing environmental contexts of China's first complex societies; 3. Household subsistence and ritual; 4. Spatial organization and social relations in communities; 5. Community burial patterns; 6. Development and decline of complex societies in the Central Plains; 7. Development and decline of social complexity beyond the Central Plains; 8. Trajectories toward early states; 9. Reconstructing social processes; Notes; Appendixes; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The Chinese Neolithic is a major achievement. The book presents a coherent and methodologically quite sophisticated vision of the late prehistory of the middle and lower Yellow River basin...Liu's compelling investigation into the precursors of the early Chinese dynasties elicits great admiration." - Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California, Los Angelos Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

From the Publisher