Archaic States

The role of ritual and religion in the expansion of archaic states is often overlooked in favor of militaristic or economic explanations. In chapter 6, Williams and Nash explore religious ritual practice in the reproduction of social order at the Wari (600–1000 CE) colony in Moquegua, Peru, focusing on ritually important activities in three architecturally distinctive ceremonial structures around Cerro Baúl: Wari D-shaped temples; huaca shrines; and Titicaca Basin–inspired platform-sunken court complexes. Activities in all these structures take place contemporaneously on and around the Wari citadel situated on the 600-meter-tall mesa on the southern Wari frontier. According to the authors, the diverse rites in these complexes promoted the promulgation of distinct elite identities within the cosmopolitan sphere of what constituted Wari provincialism. However, it is the inclusiveness of ritual practice in the Wari centers that is most distinctive of Wari doctrine. It is through this incorporation of elite diversity in particular places on the landscape that Wari was able to weave together the foundations for pluralism that constituted Wari religious hegemony.

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Variation and Change in Archaic States

Ritual and Archaic States ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813062785.003.0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gary M. Feinman

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Ritual Practice ◽

Social Mechanisms ◽

Comparative Analyses ◽

Archaic States

Humans cooperate in social networks that are larger, more complex, and generally exhibit greater diversity than those of other mammals. Though the behaviors and social mechanisms that sustain these often multigenerational arrangements remain incompletely understood, ritual has been proposed as one important factor that contributes to the resilience and reproduction of human social formations. Underpinned by recent interdisciplinary and comparative analyses of ritual and cooperation, the diversity of human ritual practice during the preindustrial past is considered in this chapter with a focus on archaic (preindustrial) states. Concepts for framing variation and change in ritual practice are advanced with particular consideration given to the axes of scale and modes of cooperation.

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MULTIAGENTS AND ARCHAIC STATES

Philosophy and Simulation ◽

10.5040/9781350096806.0014 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

Archaic States

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4. Oedipus

10.1093/actrade/9780199226818.003.0004 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Pick

Keyword(s):

Lived Experience ◽

Oedipus Complex ◽

States Of Mind ◽

Fundamental Part ◽

Political Implications ◽

Archaic States ◽

Triangular Relationships ◽

The Mind

‘Oedipus’ considers the Oedipus complex, a pivotal but much criticized idea in psychoanalysis. Freud suggested the ancient story of the murder of the father and union with the mother has such power because it resonates with a psychic truth about archaic states of mind in all of us. The psychological, anthropological, and political implications of Freud’s account have been much explored. It can be argued that with its focus upon such core triangular relationships in the mind it affords a useful perspective, and one with considerable purchase on psychic truth and people’s lived experience. Whatever the particular familial details, analysts would argue, the Oedipus complex plays a fundamental part in personality structuring.

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Multiethnicity, pluralism, and migration in the south central Andes: An alternate path to state expansion

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1500487112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (30) ◽

pp. 9202-9209 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Paul S. Goldstein

Keyword(s):

Central Andes ◽

Political Organization ◽

The South ◽

Apparent Contradiction ◽

State Expansion ◽

South Central ◽

Archaic States ◽

And Migration ◽

Social Entities

The south central Andes is known as a region of enduring multiethnic diversity, yet it is also the cradle of one the South America’s first successful expansive-state societies. Social structures that encouraged the maintenance of separate identities among coexistent ethnic groups may explain this apparent contradiction. Although the early expansion of the Tiwanaku state (A.D. 600–1000) is often interpreted according to a centralized model derived from Old World precedents, recent archaeological research suggests a reappraisal of the socio-political organization of Tiwanaku civilization, both for the diversity of social entities within its core region and for the multiple agencies behind its wider program of agropastoral colonization. Tiwanaku’s sociopolitical pluralism in both its homeland and colonies tempers some of archaeology’s global assumptions about the predominant role of centralized institutions in archaic states.

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Discussant

Ritual and Archaic States ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813062785.003.0009 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Alexei Vranich

Keyword(s):

Social Organization ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Social Groups ◽

Human Perception ◽

Cultural Narrative ◽

Archaic States ◽

Inherent Part

The discussion chapter contextualizes the essays in this volume on the scholarship of ritual and archaic states. It highlights the importance of ritual as an inherent part of a cultural narrative in past and present societies alike, and how, by studying ritual and its relationship to cultural practices and social organization, we can better understand diverse social groups. The review of the chapters stresses how the authors provide a variety of methodological and interpretive tools. These include the cautious use of ethnographic and ethnohistorical analogy, phenomenological recreations–based universals of human perception and movement, and minute analysis of the discards of ritual and performances, from trash to valued items placed with the deceased.

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