Joseph A. Tainter

Mortuary Practices and the Study of Prehistoric Social Systems

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the mortuary practices and the study of prehistoric social systems. The study of mortuary practices reflects social phenomena. To evaluate the usefulness of mortuary data for social modeling, two criteria are important. These are the range of social information that can be derived from mortuary remains, and the reliability of burial data as indicators of social phenomena. One of the basic problems in the study of prehistoric societies has been the development of scales on which archaeological societies can be placed for comparative purposes. The scales most frequently used are derived from ethnology. These scales aspire to an ordinal level of measurement, in that a societal typology is developed, in which, kinds of societies are ranked according to increasing degrees of structural complexity and increasing numbers of mechanisms for organizing populations. The use of evolutionary typologies as analogues for archaeological societies has dominated mortuary studies. The chapter presents the examples that illustrate the types of conclusions usually derived when evolutionary typologies are employed. The ethnologists who have developed evolutionary typologies have largely conceptualized social variables as dichotomous, and have utilized such dichotomies as the basis for abstracting societal types.

Problem Solving: Complexity, History, Sustainability

Sustainability or collapse follow from the success or failure of problem-solving institutions. The factors that lead to long-term success or failure in problem solving have received little attention, so that this fundamental activity is poorly understood. The capacity of institutions to solve problems changes over time, suggesting that a science of problem solving, and thus a science of sustainability, must be historical. Complexity is a primary problem-solving strategy, which is often successful in the short-term, but cumulatively may become detrimental to sustainability. Historical case studies illustrate different outcomes to long-term development of complexity in problem solving. These cases clarify future options for contemporary societies: collapse, simplification, or increasing complexity based on increasing energy subsidies.

Marxist perspectives in archaeology

Marxist theory has been an undercurrent in western social science since the late nineteenth century. It came into prominence in the social sciences in the 1960s and 1970s and has had a profound effect on history, sociology and anthropology. This book represents an attempt to gather together Marxist perspectives in archaeology and to examine whether indeed they represent advances in archaeological theory. The papers in this volume look forward to the growing use of Marxist theory by archaeologists; as well as enriching archaeology as a discipline they have important implications for sociology and anthropology through the addition of a long-term, historical perspective. This is a book primarily for undergraduates and research students and their teachers in departments of archaeology and anthropology but it should also be of interest to historians, sociologists and geographers.

Sustainability of Complex Societies

Abstract Historical knowledge is fundamental to sustainable development. Recent research implicates the development of complexity in systems of problem solving as a primary cause of societal collapse. Diminishing returns to problem solving limited the ability of historical societies to resolve their challenges, and will limit the ability of contemporary societies to address global change. The solutions to this dilemma lie within 1. (a) knowledge of our historical position in a system of evolving complexity 2. (b) the further development of energy to finance problem solving.

A Framework for Sustainability

Sustainability is value laden, and achieving sustainability is constrained by conflict and inefficient problem solving. Sustainability requires minimizing the costs of both constraints. This article outlines a framework for sustainability that recognizes divergent values, improves the productivity of debate, and suggests how to reduce sustainability costs.

Behavior and Status in a Middle Woodland Mortuary Population from the Illinois Valley

One shortcoming of the archaeological study of prehistoric societies is a failure to pursue the behavioral correlates of social distinctions. This paper shows, through a study of Middle Woodland mortuary populations, that analysis of degenerative joint disease is a productive approach to investigating status-linked behavior in archaeological populations.

Ecology, diversity, and sustainability of the Middle Rio Grande Basin

This book synthesizes existing information on the ecology, diversity, human uses, and research needs of the Middle Rio Grande Basin of New Mexico. Divided into nine chapters, the volume begins with reviews of the environmental history and human cultures in the Basin, followed by an analysis of the influences and problems of climate and water. Later chapters focus on ecological processes, environmental changes, management problems, and current conditions in Basin ecosystems identified as being especially susceptible to damage: pinyon-juniper woodlands, grasslands and shrublands, and the riparian bosque of the Rio Grande. Research needs associated with land management problems are identified for each of these ecosystem types. Many interrelated factors, identified here, have contributed to deteriorating environmental conditions in the Basin. Concluding chapters on the belowground ecology of specific Basin ecosystems and on declining populations of native fish species highlight topics in need of further attention. Each chapter seeks to identify studies that can supply information to mitigate environmental problems, rehabilitate ecosystems, and sustain them in light of human values and needs.

Complexity, problem-solving, sustainability and resilience

Societies often solve problems by developing more complex technologies and institutions. Sustainability emerges from success at solving problems. Complexity is a powerful problem-solving tool, but increased complexity requires resources and carries a metabolic cost. Resilience, a condition of vulnerability or the capacity to recover from a setback, helps achieve sustainability goals. Resilient societies must have reserve problem-solving capacity to adjust to major challenges. The abilities of ancient and modern societies to respond to crises at different states of complexity illustrate the relationship between problem-solving capacity and resilience. Increasing complexity, effective at first, seems inexorably to accumulate and to evolve to diminishing returns, undermining the ability to solve future problems. These processes are illustrated through historical case studies, including urban resilience.

The Mountainair Lithic Scatters: Settlement Patterns and Significance Evaluation of Low Density Surface Sites

AbstractThe Mountainair Lithic Scatters represent a kind of site all too frequently ignored by archaeologists. This paper suggests that field survey involving small projects should anticipate that isolated surface scatters can, with certain limitations, be placed into a settlement-pattern framework.

Resources and Cultural Complexity: Implications for Sustainability

In the cosmology of Western industrial societies, “progress” results from human creativity enacted in facilitating circumstances. In human history, creativity leading to progress was supposedly enabled by the development of agriculture, which provided surplus energy and freed people from needing to spend full time in subsistence pursuits. Applying this belief to the matter of sustainability today leads to the supposition that we can voluntarily reduce resource use by choosing a simpler way of life with lower consumption. Recent research suggests that these beliefs are deeply inaccurate. Humans develop complex behaviors and institutions to solve problems. Complexity and problem solving carry costs and require resources. Rather than emerging from surplus energy, cultural complexity often precedes the availability of energy and compels increases in its production. This suggests that, with major problems converging in coming decades, voluntary reductions in resource consumption may not be feasible. Future sustainability will require continued high levels of energy consumption.