Anthropology 2100 Lecture Notes - Environmental Degradation, Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew Of Kaimsthorn, State Religion
31 Jan 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Marshall sahlins says people living in complex sedentary communities seem to live in the eternal economic dilemma of unlimited wants and limited means; but simpler societies have adjusted to their limited means by having fewer wants . In the late 19th century within the framework of unilinear evolution the origin of complex societies was thought to be a natural progression but this is not widely accepted today. Archaeologists are interested in the processes by which centralized authority was achieved and whether that authority has legitimacy (centralized authority has legitimacy when the right to power is accepted) Recall elman service"s definitions of societies of increasing complexity: bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states. Morton fried"s scheme: egalitarian societies, ranked societies, and stratified societies and states. Egalitarian society is where the only differences in status are based on skill, age and gender and ranked society is when there is a hierarchy of prestige, not linked to age, gender or ability.
