Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Archaeological Narratives, Scales and the Issue of Social Complexity
Content:
The recent epistemological shift in archaeology from the traditional focus on large scales of analysis towards the inclusion of smaller scales has not always resulted in a congruous historical perspective or in the recognition of the necessity of multi-scalarity. A major obstacle is the maintenance of the Eurocentric view of history, deriving from the grand models of social evolution, as a teleological, linear, cumulative, and inevitable ‘progress’ towards hierarchisation. Consequently, many archaeological narratives equate complexity with hierarchy, take hierarchy as the chief mechanism driving social advances, and contrast complexity with simplicity. Υet, archaeology is continually confronted by processes, trajectories and social choices that do not fit into neat preconceived models.
This session seeks to explore alternative models of social complexity in archaeology in relation to archaeological theories and analytical frames for a historical outlook on past societies. It aims to question top-down approaches and to emphasise that a theoretically informed understanding of complexity needs to address a wider range of issues and scales than those conventionally considered and to embrace perspectives more open and dynamic than the brands of evolutionism which often underlie our interpretations.
Papers focus on one or more of the following issues and draw on case-studies across the world:
• How do we problematise historical process(es) in archaeology? Can a multi-scalar approach be key?
• How do we define social complexity? Can relevant discussions in the social sciences inform us? Can theoretical and computational models help us understand the multi-causal drivers of social complexity?
• Does the classification of societies either as simple (i.e., egalitarian) or complex (i.e., unequal) stand up to the test of contemporary social theory?
• Are social hierarchy, technological advances and gender imbalances concomitant with social complexity?
• How can a new understanding of social complexity inform the construction of archaeological narratives?
Keywords:
history / historical process / perspective, social complexity, multi-scalarity, equality / inequality, hierarchy / heterarchy, critique of evolutionism
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Stella Souvatzi (Greece) 1
Co-organisers:
Maria Mina (Greece) 2
Dries Daems (Turkey) 3
Affiliations:
1. University of Thessaly
2. University of the Aegean
3. Middle East Technical University
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