|
|
Re: from bands to states?
Wade Tarzia (wade@PMC.UCONN.EDU)
Thu, 15 Aug 1996 15:59:10 -0400
(note -- I'm doing stupid things this afternoon, like sending TK replies I
mean to go to the list. Now I hope I haven't sent *this* to the list
already??? This is one day I need it to be Friday... Anyway, I was going
to say: )
Interesting reply from TK. On this thread, does anyone know of any recent,
major works on the chiefdom? I read Earle's (editor) 1991 (?) book, and
something on chiefdoms in an American Anthropologist and a Current
Anthropology of ca 1992-94, but have found not too much else (but I have
been out of the literature seacrh mode on this for about a year; want to
pick up again on a project examining the chiefdom society depicted in
medieval narratives, esp. Beowulf and Irish saga material).
Earle and his crew seem quite focused on the political aspects of the
chiefdom and have seemingly left off considering the chiefdom as a social
adaptation to certain conditions (that is, something useful for survival
value of the group as opposed to purely aggrandizing for the benefit of
chiefs). I supose Sahlins went rather far in his early work on the 'good
chief' motif, but I wonder if anthropology has given up on any
ecological/materialist /adaptive/managerial benefits temming from the
chiefdom type of organization?
-- wade tarzia
|