Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World

Description

Factionalism is an important force of social transformation, and this volume examines how factional competition in the kinship and political structures in ancient New World societies led to the development of chiefdoms, states and empires. The case studies, from a range of New World societies, represent all levels of non-egalitarian societies and a wide variety of ecological settings in the New World. They document the effects of factionalism on the structure of particular polities: for example, how it might have led to the growth of social inequality, or to changing patterns of chiefly authority, or to state formation and expansion, or institutional specialisation. The work is a creative and substantial contribution to our understanding of the political dynamics in early state society, and will interest archaeologists, anthropologists, political scientists and historians.

"I am pleased to add the chapters in this volume to the growing list of sources contributing to the development and refinement of an explicitly behavioral approach to the explanation of sociocultural change....the book successfully addresses many questions from an interesting point of view." Richard Blanton, Ethno History