New World States and Empires: Politics, Religion, and Urbanism

The past decade has seen a veritable explosion in archaeological research on complex societies in Latin America. In 1993, Smith published an overview of research to that date; this article is one of two bringing that summary up to the present. Our first article, New World states and empires: Economi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of archaeological research 2006-03, Vol.14 (1), p.1-52
Main Authors: Smith, Michael E., Schreiber, Katharina J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeological paradigms
Archaeology
Architecture
Aztec culture
Cities
City states
Complex societies
Cultural change
Empires
Field archaeology
Latin America
Migration
Paleoanthropology
Politics
Polities
Prehistory
Religion
Religious rituals
State
Urbanism
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Summary:The past decade has seen a veritable explosion in archaeological research on complex societies in Latin America. In 1993, Smith published an overview of research to that date; this article is one of two bringing that summary up to the present. Our first article, New World states and empires: Economic and social organization (Smith and Schreiber, 2005), dealt with issues regarding economic and social organization. The present article tackles political organization and dynamics, religion, urbanism, and settlement patterns. We also review recent research in the context of various theoretical perspectives, some traditional, some more contemporary, including approaches to history and process, cultural evolution, agency-based models, linguistic prehistory, migration theory, and the relationship between environmental change and cultural events. Our discussion blends empirical findings, methodological advances, and theoretical perspectives.
ISSN:1059-0161
1573-7756
DOI:10.1007/s10814-005-9000-1