International Journal of South American Archaeology

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS Russian Academy of Sciences- Institute for African Studies- Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies & Russian State University for the Humanities-School of History, Political Science and Law. Moscow, June 23-26, 2009
Panel: The Forms of Social Stratification and Power Institutions in Chiefdoms and State Societies of South America and Mesoamerica The main objective of this panel is to discuss the civilizational and evolutionary models of socio-political development of two important regions in the preHispanic Period: the northeastern part of South America and Mesoamerica. The panel is integrated by scholars from these regions and is open to other researchers interested in the comparison and analysis of the sociopolitical evolution of Chiefdoms and State societies in these regions as well. The panel will be dedicated to the examination of general tendencies and particularities of appearance, evolution and functioning of social stratification and power in the South American and Mesoamerican societies in course of more than 3000 years from Formative Period to the first quarter of XVI century, the time of Spanish Conquest. The Andean region and Mesoamerica are two of the few regions in the world, where complex societies and states emerged independently of contacts with other parts of the earth that gives to researchers the unique “opportunity” for checking the existing theories of complex societies and state formation. This moment is combined with exceptional richness of archaeological materials and written sources, which makes possible to reconstruct at least in general forms the main vector of South American and Mesoamerican civilizations’ development as well as concrete variants of their evolution in various parts of the regions.
Departing from these general objectives, the panel will deal with three main blocks of questions to be discussed during its sessions: » Discussion and evaluation of theoretical models, methodological approaches and/or archaeological indicators related directly to the societies in the regions and period mentioned above. » Discussion of several aspects based on the archaeological record and/or ethnohistoric sources, related to the formation of hierarchical and net structures, social inequality, gender roles, funerary practices, long distance trade, diffusion of knowledge, and the possible relationship between these two regions and/or some of their forms of socio-political organization. » Main economic and environmental factors of appearance and evolution of states and complex societies in South American and Mesoamerica. » Economic, ideological and social bases of power in Formative, Classic and Postclassic societies. The panel will work during two days with division in morning and day session. The paper presentation can not be more than 15 minutes. The general discussion of papers will be held at the end of session as well as answering to questions made during paper presentation. Convenor: Ernesto Gonzalez Licon, Ph.D. México. Institutional affiliation: Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Division de Posgrado. (National School of Anthropology and History. Graduate Studies Division). Fax: (52) 5665-9228 E-mail: eglicon@yahoo.com.mx Convenor: Carlos Armando Rodriguez, Ph.D. Colombia. Institutional affiliation: Departamento de Artes Visuales y Estética. Museo Arqueológico Julio César Cubillos. Universidad del Valle (Department of Visual Arts and Aesthetics. Archaeological Museum Julio César Cubillos. University del Valle. Cali, Colombia. Fax: (57) 2-3212977 E-mail: carodrig@univalle.edu.co Convenor: Anastasia V. Kalyuta, Ph.D. Russia. Institutional affiliation: Russian Ethnological Museum. Tel.: +7 (812) 57052 28. +7 (812) 2939003 Fax: +7 (812) 3158502 E-mail: anastasiakalyuta@mail.ru, kalyuta@ethnomuseum.ru
List of papers included at this time in the panel:
1. Ethnicity and Social Composition in Monte Albán, Oaxaca during the Classic Period (A.D. 200-750). González-Licón, Ernesto Ph.D Posgrado en Arqueología de la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Address: Periférico sur y Zapote s/n. Col. Isidro Fabela 14030, México, D.F., México. Phone: (52)5606-0487 Fax: (52) 5665-9228 E-mail: eglicon@yahoo.com.mx The analysis of the social structure and inequality among the inhabitants of Monte Albán during the Classic period has been based in indicators of social prestige, political power, and wealth. Lately the gender factors have been introduced with good results, but we know little related to the ethnic composition of this great city, the ancient Zapotec capital. Ethnicity is an important factor to consider into any analysis of social stratification but also a very difficult one to identify. From a traditional perspective, the social and economical analysis of the mayor Mesoamerican urban centers of the Classic period has been considering their populations as divided in two social classes. However, besides the difficulty of divide the social complexity of these ancient societies in only two social classes, very little discussion has been presented related to the ethnic composition of these populations. With the exception of Teotihuacan, where at least two ethnic groups has been identified as non teotihuacans (one with ties to the Valley of Oaxaca and the other to the Gulf Coast), the ethnic composition in other Classic urban centers remains to be studied. In this paper, I compare the available information from ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources, related to the development of large urban centers with people from different ethnic origins. Later, I analyze the archaeological data from Monte Albán, and the possibility of identify groups of non Zapotec people.
2. The Household and Estate of Two Aztec Lords in Central Mexican Early Colonial Sources. Kalyuta, Anastasia Valerievna Ph.D Russian Museum of Ethnography, University of Florida, Department of Anthropology. Mail address in Russia: 191186,Injenernya str. 4/1 Saint-Petersburg, Russia./ In USA:1112 Turlington Hall, P.O Box 117305, Gainesville FL, 32611-7305. Fax In Russia: + 7(812) 3158502. In US # 352392253 E-mail: anastasiakalyuta@mail.ru, anakalyuta864@anthro.ufl.edu This paper focuses on formation, accumulation, structure and administration of households and supposedly “private” estates of two Aztec kings Axayacatl and his son Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (Montezuma II) as it’s reflected in Early Colonial pictorial and written records from the Basin of Mexico. The distinction and relationship between “private” and “state” sectors, existence of private land tenure, and main types of productive units in the preHispanic Aztec society are four fundamental problems which have been subjects of acute and lengthy polemics from the second half of XIX up to this date. In this respect careful examination of productive units and facilities assigned to the kings who were both the administrative leaders of the Aztec “empire” and the main distributors of all goods and products produced on its territory can be especially helpful and relevant not only for understanding economical framework of the Aztec civilization but also for reinterpreting our concepts of emergence and functioning of ancient state societies in general and economical bases of power in them. This paper aims to trace the concrete ways of acquiring, transferring and accumulation of land holdings described as the royal private properties, and to reconstruct the daily functioning of the royal households as both productive and administrative units in the time when the Aztec “empire” reached its apogee as the most powerful state in Mesoamerica. These reconstructions and hypothesis are based on comparative analysis of written and pictorial evidence including unpublished archival documents studied by the paper presented in 2006-2008.
3. Family Inequality in Monte Albán, Oaxaca. Márquez -Morfín, Lourdes Ph.D Posgrado en Antropología Física, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Address: Periférico sur y Zapote s/n. Col. Isidro Fabela 14030, México, D.F. México. Phone: (52)5606-0487 Fax: (52) 5665-9228 E-mail: rlmorfin@yahoo.com.mx Family organization inside the domestic unit maintains and reproduces structural social patterns. The study of the household, their organization, function, and their cultural practices such as the funerary, allows identifying, inequality among members of a community and how the social structure could have an impact in life and health conditions, through different access to natural resources. In this paper I examine and summarizes the evidence related to practices associated with death at the ancient city of Monte Albán, during the Classic (A.D. 200- 800). I gathered information on more than 100 excavated burials and the results of the osteological analysis. The objective will be to identify individual social position of several residents of three houses, analyzing funerary patterns from a gender perspective, and broaden current understanding of social relationships, especially of status differences among members of that complex society. The analysis of variation in burial treatment afforded particular individuals and the relationship of those variations to factors such as age, sex and residence of the deceased.
4. Terracota Figurines as a Source of Studying the Stratification on Maya Society of Classic Period. Demicheva, Irina Jurevna Institute of Archeology Russian Academy of Science Russia Nizhni Novgorod, street Fedoseenko, 15-122 E-mail: iudem@mail.ru The complex approach to the studying questions of the social system full enough opens structure and characteristics of public organization. Attraction to the written, epigraphic, ethnographic and archeological sources allows to allocate features of vertical and horizontal communications between public groups within the limits of a separate civilization. Specificity of a social system concerns to number of factors playing defining role in development of a society. Therefore use of the information received at the analysis of Maya terracotta figurines of the Classical period, allows to expand and add essentially representations, as about social Maya system, and its development as a whole. Representatives of different social groups were represented in characteristic clothes for this group, a set of ornaments and status attributes. It allows to identify a sort of activity and the status of the represented subject. In this connection, it is possible to choose some categories of the population. The public top was occupied with rules, the secular nobility, a priestly top, a part of warriors. In most cases, rulers were represented sitting on a throne, in a rich costume with numerous ornaments. Distinctions in the image of the secular nobility and priests are conditional enough. As a rule, elements of their costume, as ornaments had more similar features, rather than distinctive features. Objects with which people are represented, allow to identify in Maya society, musicians, weavers, players in a ball, ordinary representatives of a community. The significant group is made by women behind a weaving loom. Distinctive feature of the player in a ball was the protective belt-yoke. The analysis of terracotta figurines allows to analyze full enough some features of Maya society. Enables to reveal a variety of public groups, to define external attributes of representatives of this or that category of the population.
5. XVI-century Maya Cuchkabal: The Problems of Definition, Structure and Complexity of Late Postclassic Maya Polities. Pakin, Alexandr Junior Research Fellow. Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for African Studies Centers of History and Cultural Anthropology Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies). Phone: 8 906 756 8911 E-mail: pakinos@mail.ru The Yucatec Maya polities of the contact period did not often became a subject of special investigation, despite the fact, that data on Yucatec Maya society were applied as a pattern for describing any lowland Maya society of earlier periods. The fundamental works of R. Roys, based mainly on his investigation of colonial documents of Ebtun in the late of 1920s were critically revised only in the beginning of 1990-s, while the archaeological data of Postclassic period were scare, or absent until recent research projects (such as Chikinchel project). The paper concern the number of questions, raised by this discussion, such as complexity of late Postclassic polities, their structure, the level of integration.
6. “Diminutive Polities” in the System of Classic Maya Political Relations. Safronov, Alexander V. Ph.D Senior lecturer The Lomonosov Moscow State University. Faculty of History, Department of Ancient History. Phone: +7-916-6319335, +7-499-2481223 E-mail: alexsafronov@bk.ru Early state Classic Maya political system assumed the existence of different level states, occupied the territory of Maya Lowland. Base on epigraphic and archaeological materials we can register during III–IX century: a) “super-powers” – large political structures, which strived to domination in the Maya World. We know about two of them – Kaanu’l and Mutu’l kingdoms; b) “regional states” – powerful polities, controlled a certain separate geographical regions of the Maya area; c) “mini-powers” – spacious city-states, which had they own vassals and controlled local areas; d) “city-state” (segmentary state / primary state etc.) – basic unit of Maya political system, which could be independent or dependent objects of political relations. But we know by Classic historical sources about numerous smallest states, which did not play any key roles in the political relations. At the same time they were very important for functioning of Maya political system. We can title these smallest city-states as “diminutive polities”. Usually the matter is about very compact territory (few hundred sq. km.) around small political center, unstable royal dynasty and unclear or poor internal administrative structure. Most of these polities appeared in the Late Classic period as a result of intensive military invasions the powerful Maya states, and found from conquered local areas of the enemies. So, “diminutive polities” mostly had a dependent position and they creation was a method for expanding of the sphere of influence the mightiest Maya states.
7. Towards the Theoretical and Practical Application of Chiefdoms’ Definition in South America and Mesoamerica on the Archaeological Cultures of Siberia, Russia: Problems and Perspectives. Tabarev, Andrei V. Ph.D Chief, Division of Foreign Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. 17, Lavrentieva Ave., 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia. Phone: +7(383)334-59-06. Fax: +7(383)330-11-91 E-mail: tabarev@archaeology.nsc.ru, olmec@yandex.ru Since the second part of XXth century the theory of chiefdoms was successfully used for many prehistoric societies in the New World, particular in Mesoamerica and South America. A number of local models were evaluated in detailed by specialists for Formative, Classic, and Postclassic periods in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa-Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. Unfortunately till today this rich experience and theoretical toolkit was not explored by Russian archaeologists in whole volume. Most of classic works and recent publications on complex societies and early states are not know to Russian scholars and never been translated. From another side bright archaeological heritage from Siberian region (Bronze Age and Early Iron Age) may be a very perspective “laboratory” for application of theory of chiefdoms on the ancient cultures of Northeast Asia. It would be extremely intriguing if models of early agricultural societies in tropical latitudes may be compared with nomads of mountain territories in Southern Siberia. First of all, we’ll be dealing with the materials of so called “Scythians” - set of aggressive tribes widespread from Black Sea to the Chinese Great Wall in first millennium BC. In Southern Siberia they left multiple large-scale mounds with rich burials, armor, golden items, mummies, sacrificed men and animals. All these finds may be strict evidences of the intensive formation of hierarchical social structure and sophisticated ritual complex which corresponds with some parameters of chiefdoms in the New World.
8. Ancient Mesoamerica Was a Middle Class Society. Steere, Benjamin A. Ph.D E-mail: bsteere@uga.edu Kowalewski, Stephen A. Ph.D E-mail: skowalew@uga.edu University of Georgia. Department of Anthropology. 250A Baldwin Hall, Jackson St. Athens, Georgia 30602-1619. Phone: (706) 542-3922. Fax: (706) 542-3998 Most scholars have seen preindustrial societies as composed of a small, distinct, dominating nobility, a large and poor commoner class, with a special group of long-distance merchants and luxury artisans. In Mesoamerica this perception comes from native and Spanish writings and it has been reinforced by excavations of rich tombs and palaces. Mesoamerican archaeological studies more representative of whole communities and societies (systematic collecting sometimes with follow-up excavations) confirm the existence of civic-ceremonial hierarchy but they differ from the apical model by showing that wealth had a continuous--not discrete--distribution and that society's great masses were not poor but relatively well off. Domestic architecture and portable artifacts are especially revealing. To illustrate in more detail we present findings from our 2008 survey in Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. Coixtlahuaca was a large kingdom, an important place in the Aztec empire, a tribute and exchange center, and a regional agrarian center. Our project defined the spatial limits and studied the internal variability of Inguiteria, Coixtlahuaca's Aztec-period capital. Inguiteria had over 30 km2 of continuous occupation. The density of houses suggests Inguiteria had 50,000-100,000 inhabitants; but its civic-ceremonial architecture was modest in scale. Our systematic collecting and mapping show that costly ceramics, costly stone artifacts, and potential high-status residences were not concentrated in a central precinct but were widely available and rather evenly distributed across the city. Inguiteria reflects not a cosmological, pivotal urbanism designed and controlled by an exclusive nobility but an open city with a broad and fairly even distribution of wealth, and no large class of the poor. It is time to confront directly the apical model of ancient society with the facts of material life. There was much more going on than "The Rulers and the Ruled."
9. The Children from an Ancient Village at Xochimilco, México: a Gender Approach. Hernández-Espinoza, Patricia Olga Ph.D Posgrado en Antropología Física, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Address: Periférico sur y Zapote s/n. Col. Isidro Fabela 14030, México, D.F. Mexico. Phone: (52)5606-0487 Fax: (52) 5665-9228 E-mail: patyhernandez@yahoo.com Gender studies include the analysis of role of children in ancient societies. This topic hasn’t been developed enough to know about the social position of these individuals at the society that they used to belong. Technical problems about sexing did not allow analyzing separately males and females infant skeletons. However, we have developed a morphological and statistical methodology to sex young skeletons (birth to 14 years old) and the results allow us to talk about children in an ancient Mesoamerican village, at Xochimilco, Mexico, and to try to answer questions like ¿Who were they? ¿What happened to them? Previous bioarchaeological studies about the site of San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco, showed that these people lived at late Postclassic period (b.C. 1500-1519) at the Shore of Xochimilco Lake; they worked at the chinampas and produced many of the food that Tenochtitlan consumed. They were their tributaries. More than 400 burials were excavated from this site; about 50% of them were subadults (younger than 15 years old at death). Severe pathological lesions were observed in the skeletons of younger children, associated with nutritional stress and bad living conditions. The general poor health status (adults and children) take us to think about difficult times, social and economics breakdown that affected living conditions of the village inhabitants, in the case of the children famine and poor sanitary conditions affected their immunological systems and died at early ages. This paper is focused in finding a burial pattern and answer some questions about differential health status between male and female children ¿Do children buried with adults have any health difference to those that were buried alone? ¿Pathologies associated with nutritional stress are common in girls?
10. Formation of Distinct Identities in the Mexican Isthmus. Fifteenth - twentieth centuries. Reina-Aoyama, Leticia Ph.D Dirección de Estudios Históricos del INAH. Calle Allende 172, esq. Matamoros. Col. Tlalpan, 14000, México, D.F. México. Phone: (52)5606-0487 Fax: (52) 5665-9228 E-mail: leticiareina@prodigy.net.mx The paper proposes an analysis of long-term commitment on elements that have historically determined the differences between ethnic groups (Zapotec, Mixes, Huaves, and Zoques) in the Isthmus of Mexico region. We will try to explain how and why the first one had an economic and cultural power over other ethnic groups. From a regional approach, we turn to the local level and expose the components that inside the Zapotec group generated a high stratification and a strong presence of women in their gender relations.
11. The Regional Sociopolitical Organization during the preHispanic Period in the Northwest of Mexico. Martínez-Mora, Estela. Professor National School of Anthropology and History. Licenciatura en Arqueología. Address: Periférico Sur y Zapote s/n Col. Isidro Fabela, México D.F. 14030, Mexico. Phone: 56 06 17 58 Ext. 245. E-mail: estmarmor@hotmail.com In this paper I will present an interpretation of the regional socioeconomic development of the groups that integrated the Chalchihuites Culture in Mexico. These social groups inhabited the Northwest of the present states of Zacatecas and South of Durango, Mexico, from 200 to 1000 B.C. From the Johnson and Earle’s heterarchy model perspective, I will discuss the historical process corresponding at their moment of apogee, and identifying as a system of heterarchies of regional type favored by the operation of mining resources of the region. My interest here is the analysis of the first sedentary societies of village type (A.D. 200) and its transition to societies with a system of organization of regional type. I will discuss the process from the sprouting of a relatively egalitarian society institutions some groups were able to developed and dominate the regional area until they reach a level of heterarchies dominating the local panorama. These institutions took advantage of the local resources, by the use of local resources and its transformation in necessary goods of prestige for the ideological dominion that it contributed to the development of the complexity and social inequality. The mining was one of the excellent activities that allowed to the consolidation of the institutions and the increase of the inequalities and development of the local elites obtaining the conformation of the system of regional political integration characteristic of these societies that, at the same time, integrated themselves to a greater panregional system or Mesoamerican.
12. The Political Power and the Development of the pre-Columbian Urban Landscape of Tantoc, Mexico. Córdova-Tello, Guillermo. Professor Dirección de Estudios Arqueológicos del INAH. Periférico Sur y Zapote s/n Col. Isidro Fabela, México D.F. 14030, Mexico. Phone: 56 06 17 58 Ext. 245. E-mail: guicotell@hotmail.com Archeological evidence indicates that the old city of Tantoc was the capital of the Huasteca region during the pre-Hispanic time. During the development of this region, at least three periods of apogee were identified: the first period (between b.C. 400-600) corresponds to urban genesis. The second is the Classic period when reframing and configuration of the architectonic space occurred, which includes new architectural design in building construction. The third and final period, the Postclassic, corresponds to the last stage of occupation and there was a regional decline in the influence of Tantoc. In this analysis, I adopted the premise that the city required the capacity of becoming well developed. The formation and permanence of the city depended on the consolidation of institutionalized, political power in order to extract food and other products from the physical landscape that are required for the maintenance of the urban population. We considered that the activities of both cult and ceremony made in specific regions of the city were vital to reaffirm and to maintain political prestige and power within the entire Huasteca region. I will present advances of the archaeological project Origin and development of the urban landscape of Tantoc S.L.P. A point of our investigation was to determine if the origin of the urban nucleus in the Huasteca region occurred as a result of purely local conditions being the cause of urban genesis implying internal development of regional, political, and social complexity. Or, did this complexity of development occur due to the influences from the outside as a result of the diffusion of cultural characteristics and ideas resulting from colonial influences leading to reinvention of regional, political, and social complexity. We will reveal the characteristics of institutions of political power that allowed for the origin and transformation of the pre-Hispanic city of Tantoc.
13. Ethno-political Situation in the Cuzco Region on the Eve of Inca Empire Formation. Rakutz, Nikolai Viktorovich Ph.D. Research worker Institute for Latin American Studies, RAS. Address: B. Ordynka 21, Moscow 115035, Russia. Phone: 9512626 E-mail: dinosaurxxi@yahoo.com Archaeological investigations realized during last two decades in the core of the Inca Empire (B. Bauer, R. A. Covey, and others) showed that the hypothesis based on the J.H. Row’s chronology about rapid territorial expansion of the Incas leaded by Pachacútec does not correlate well with archaeological and historical (represented in some Spanish chronicles) data. Now it is evident that Cuzco was not only one of small-scale societies of the region, but the most powerful state of the area at the beginning of AD1400s. Before the beginning of expansion Inca state was really one of some small states (there were some non-Inca rulers named “capac’ according to the chronicles, and each one of them in reality could become the creator of a new complex state, even something like the Wari Empire, for example). It should be noted also that the region was populated by many ethnic groups of different origin; some of them evidently migrated from the lake Titicaca area. In this situation Incas made a successful politic efforts to consolidate their power in the region (alliances, subjugation of small groups, reorganization of agricultural systems, consolidation of neighboring groups under their control, proclaimed Quechua the official language, etc.). The most interesting fact is that according to some chronicles, (whose authors were designated as “liars” by some scholars) and also new archaeological data the Incas began their rapid territorial expansion not in AD1438 (according to J.H. Row chronology) but at the end of the 14th century or even earlier, when various conquests were realized, and so the process of empire formation was not linked with only one ruler (Pachacútec) but with efforts of some other Inca rulers of the 14th century.
14. The socio-political evolution of North and Central Columbian chiefdoms. Ostrirova, Elena Sergeevna Post-graduate student, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow. Adress: 117321 Мoscow, Ostrovitjanova st., 18-4-131. Phone: 3386073 E-mail: maraveriza@gmail.com The socio-political evolution of North and Central Columbian chiefdoms is used here in the context of Chibchan world. The pre-Spanish communities of North and central Columbia such as Muisca and Tairona who recovered the level of complex political pre-state organization have a certain attitude to the chibchan world, the area of chibchan language. They used to be defined as complex chiefdoms. The target of the investigation is to trace all the stages of that complicated socio-political organization and to define the scale of integration in the terms of evolution of the whole chibchan world. The key issue of investigation are: - why in particular Muisca and Tairona managed to get the intelligence level which is defined as the top of the Chibchan world. - which are the determinal factors among such as the environmental effect, migratory behavior, central American or Andean influence. The main sources are: Iconography (gold and jade prestige goods) and funeral materials. Other archaeological and ethno-historical sources.
15. The Symbolism of Death as Element of the Religious Power in the San Agustín Prehispanic Society, Southwestern Colombia. Rodríguez, Carlos Armando, Ph.D. Departamento de Artes Visuales y Estética-Museo Arqueológico Julio C. Cubillos, Universidad del Valle. Address: Calle 13 N° 100-00. Phone: (57) 2-3212975. Fax: (57) 2-5665-9228, Cali - Colombia. E-mail: carodrig@univalle.edu.co The analysis of the archeological materials, considered as signs of social differentiation, allows to raise the hypothesis that the chiefs- shamans of San Agustin society used a sumptuous paraphernalia of death to support their political and religious power during the Regional Classical Period (300/200 BC - 600 AD). It also argues that the symbolism of death as the foundation of power could have been expressed in the use of a topography of the sacred that could have included different scales, from a macro-region as Upper Magdalena until relatives micro spaces such as the Mesitas Complex in the current Archaeological Park of San Agustin.
16. Social Complexity and Archaeologists in Northern South America. Gnecco, Cristóbal Ph.D. Departamento de Antropología, Universidad del Cauca. Address: Calle 5 N° 4-70. Phone: (57) 2-820990, Popayán - Colombia. E-mail: cgnecco@unicauca.edu.co Behind archaeological categories lie the agendas, political and otherwise (no matter how unconscious they are), of archaeologists. Social complexity is a good example. Its inception and unfolding in northern South America before the European conquest cannot be separated from paradigmatic choices on the part of researchers. For the most part, preHispanic social complexity, as postulated by archaeologist, is not more preHispanic than it is modern (i.e., the imagination of well defined, complex, homogeneous, and continuous cultures is a trademark of Western thought and its characterization of national societies). This paper argues that the archaeological conception of social complexity can be profitably analyzed if we go beyond disciplinary, positivist borders to encompass the wider contexts in which archaeologists operate.
17. “Galactic polities” and the study of complex regional systems of the Llanos de Venezuela. Gassón, Rafael, Ph.D. Centro de Antropología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas. Address: Torre BANHORIENT, Piso 4, Oficina 4B principio de Av. Casanova cruce con las Acacias. Plaza Venezuela-Sabana Grande, Caracas, Venezuela. Phone: 0212-781.86.87. E-mail: rgasson@ivic.ve Recent research on the Upper Xingú region in Brazil propose the development of urban centers on the South American lowlands during the pre-Columbian period, and a reconsideration of early urbanism and long term change in tropical forest landscapes. In this work I will apply Stanley J. Tambiah's Galactic polity model to the comparative study of the regional settlement patterns of El Cedral and El Gaván regions, two preHispanic polities located at the Municipio Pedraza, Barinas, Venezuela. This comparative study may have implications for the understanding of the relationship between the development of complex societies and regional settlement patterns on forest-savanna environments of the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela, and hence, of lowland South America.