Description
Book SynopsisBy studying chiefdoms Timothy Earle addresses fundamental questions concerning the nature of political power and the evolution of sociopolitical complexity.
Trade Review"This concise and elegantly written book examines how chiefs develop and maintain political power in prestate complex societies, or what anthropologists commonly refer to as chiefdoms. . . . [It] is path-breaking in its sophisticated dissection of the relationship between ideology and other sources of power that narrows the gap between cultural evolutionary, Marxist, symbolic, and human agency theories of complex society development." --
The Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Sciences"In the present volume, Earle weaves together variation and pattern to bring us the very best of anthropology. . . . [Earle's] latest work is a powerful synthesis of theory and data that leaves us with both a better understanding of the political economy of chiefdoms and a solid foundation for future research into critical questions about the origins and maintenance of centralized polities and systems of social control." --
American AnthropologistTable of Contents1. Introduction: the nature of political power 2. The long-term developments of three chiefdoms: Denmark, Hawaii, and the Andes 3. Sources of economic power 4. Military power: the strategic use of naked force 5. Ideology as a source of power 6. Chiefly power strategies and the emergence of complex political institutions Bibliography Index.
