Edward Schortman

Modeling the Roles of Craft Production in Ancient Political Economies

Ongoing debates over the significance of specialized production in ancient political economies frequently hinge on questions of whether elites or commoners controlled craft manufactures and whether the material or ideological import of these production processes was more significant in deciding power contests. Though long recognized, such queries were traditionally answered in relatively straightforward economic terms. Recently, these time-honored approaches have been questioned. An ever increasing number of authors are promoting varied takes on the causal linkages between political forms and processes, on the one hand, and patterns of production, distribution, and use of craft goods, on the other. The literature generated by these discussions is extensive, vibrant, and often confusing. Rather than trying to synthesize all reports and essays dealing with specialized manufacture, this paper highlights general interpretive trends that underlie and structure current debates. The concluding section offers suggestions for how studies of relations among crafts, power, and social heterogeneity might be pursued profitably in the future.

The Place of Interaction Studies in Archaeological Thought

The last several decades have witnessed a renaissance of archaeological concern with the effects of intersocietal interaction on processes of sociopolitical change. This interest is so pervasive that we see within it the development of a distinct interaction “paradigm” that is focused on the domain of sociopolitical change processes (cf. Schortman and Urban 1987). By paradigm we mean a coherent system of interrelated assumptions, unresolved questions, analytical units, and criteria for evaluating research results which focus and guide study (cf. Kaplan and Manners 1972; Kuhn 1970; Trigger 1989:22). Interaction studies, in turn, refers to research founded on the notion that individual societies, or “cultures,” are not viable but depend on inputs from other societies for survival and reproduction from generation to generation (e.g., Kohl 1987, 1989). The form, structure, and changes observed within any society cannot be understood without recourse to these extraregional inputs. Finally, the “domain of sociopolitical change” is concerned with shifts in power relations usually characterized by centralization, hierarchy building, and the incorporation of diverse ethnic and occupational units within a polity or, of course, the reverse (e.g., Tainter 1988:23–24).

The Bronze Age: Unique instance of a pre-industrial world system?

This paper considers the crosscultural trade of the 3d millennium b.c. across the region between the Euphrates and the Indus from the perspective of worldsystem theory. This theory was developed for the international economics of the past few centuries, but in the 3d millennium b.c., when neither labour nor land was a commodity, economic processes were totally different. The Bronze Age was, however, unique even in ancient times in that the great river valley civilizations relied on metal for production and that metal (copper, tin, lead, etc.) was scarce and had to be procured from afar, from less developed regions. Thus trade involved not just luxuries but also basic requirements, interaction between societies at contrasting levels of technology and social organization, and organization by ruling elites. While making the point that Bronze Age economies were not inchoate versions of our own, the paper examines the nature of trading cultures and traded items, the technologies of transport, trade initiatives, comparative metallurgical development, and other features in an attempt to determine whether the trade underdeveloped some partners.This paper considers the crosscultural trade of the 3d millennium b.c. across the region between the Euphrates and the Indus from the perspective of worldsystem theory. This theory was developed for the international economics of the past few centuries, but in the 3d millennium b.c., when neither labour nor land was a commodity, economic processes were totally different. The Bronze Age was, however, unique even in ancient times in that the great river valley civilizations relied on metal for production and that metal (copper, tin, lead, etc.) was scarce and had to be procured from afar, from less developed regions. Thus trade involved not just luxuries but also basic requirements, interaction between societies at contrasting levels of technology and social organization, and organization by ruling elites. While making the point that Bronze Age economies were not inchoate versions of our own, the paper examines the nature of trading cultures and traded items, the technologies of transport, trade initiatives...

Current Trends in Interaction Research

This chapter seeks to identify major components of a developing interaction paradigm. As mentioned in the introductory chapter, such intellectual frameworks consist of the analytical units, assumptions, and unsolved questions which direct systematic research into any topic (Kuhn 1970). The particular paradigm we are attempting to elucidate focuses on predictable relations among extrasocietal contacts and sociopolitical changes. The views advanced here are those of the authors alone. Although considerably inspired by the chapters in this volume, and the “schools of thought” they represent, there is no reason to assume that the contributors concur with the ideas we express. Our objective, in fact, is not just to exercise an editor’s prerogative to have the last word. Rather, we are writing this essay as a contribution to the formulation of an interaction paradigm and not under any delusion that our statements are definitive. If the chapter encourages constructive debate on the systemic relations between sociopolitical change and intersocietal contacts, then it will have been successful.

Opportunities for Advancement: Intra-Community Power Contests in the Midst of Political Decentralization in Terminal Classic Southeastern Mesoamerica

Archaeologists traditionally investigate the emergence of complex sociopolitical formations at microand macroscales. As fruitful as these analyses have been, they ignore insights garnered from studying how the diverse members of individual communities contested for power and material resources during periods when former political capitals were in decline. Such volatile circumstances provide ample opportunities for those seeking power to experiment with novel political forms while their would-be subordinates maneuver to undermine these overweening ambitions. Site 128 in the Naco Valley, northwestern Honduras, witnessed these struggles during the Terminal Classic. Taking advantage of the waning power of the Naco Valleys Late Classic rulers at La Sierra, magnates in this small community competed for control over clients and their labor. The resulting political configuration pitted corporate institutions against individual aggrandizers, each using a limited suite of valuable resources to capture the loyalty and labor of supporters. The inability of one faction to vanquish the other created an unstable situation ultimately undermined by unresolved tensions. Though studies of political decline usually highlight the falls of dynasties, there is much to be gained by studying those who scrambled, with varying success, to cobble together sociopolitical structures in the shadows of former states.

Late Classic Society in the Rio Ulua Drainage, Honduras

AbstractReconstructing prehistoric social organization is an important goal of lnuch archaeological research. Consideration of this topic in SE Mesoamerica, along the fringes of the lowland Maya culture-zone, has lagged behind comparable work conducted im1nediately to the west. Both the nature of the archaeological data and paucity of ethnohistorical and ethnographic information relevant to reconstructing ancient behavioral patterns conspire against social research in SE Mesoamerica. These obstacles, though significant, are not insurmountable and must be overcome before Southeastern research can help illuminate changes and variations in social form throughout the area. This article attempts to contribute to this effort by providing a detailed reconstruction of social units and their articulations within the Late Classic (A.C. 600–950) middle Rio Ulua drainage of west central Honduras. The general implications of this specific study are also considered, especially those relating to demographic reconstructi...