LISS.398A TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT and HUMAN ADAPTATION:
PART II PRE-EUROPEAN
MESOAMERICA
TYPES OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: STATES
In terms of the
basic vocabulary
of the social institutional vocabulary, as population continues to increase, full-time craft specialization and markets become prevalent
social classes (initially collections of kin-groups ?) emerge as regulators access to resources and craft
specialties . Chiefs become kings -- sometimes, but not always, a hereditary position -- and
states with the following properties develop out of
chiefdoms.
- Settlement Pattern
- 10,000-100,000+ people, permanent villages and cities (20,000-100,000+) in (at least) three level hierarchy
- Food Production
- Intensive agriculture dominates
- Sub-Units
- Families, larger kin-groups (clans, lineages) as holders of agricultural land, cross lineage “military orders” , social classes determine
access to resources
- Ritual
- Regular schedule of ceremonies...under direction of high-status specialists (priests)
- Division of Labor
- Highly diverse, full-time craft specialization, specialized ritual and leadership positions
- Leadership
- Power based, formal, hierarchic structure, access to roles determined by social class
- Mode of Exchange
- Market dominated
- Status Structure
- Stratified, access to high status position determined by social class, largely unrelated to kinship,
Colorado School of Mines
Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies
Dr. Joseph D. Sneed
jsneed@mines.edu
