Settlement Hierarchies and Political Complexity in Nonmarket Societies: The Formative Period of the Valley of Mexico

Archaeologists have long recognized that increases in political centralization often coincide with the growth of regional settlement hierarchies. Here I develop a theoretical model which explicitly relates certain aspects of political complexity to variation in settlement size. This model applies sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American anthropologist 1981-06, Vol.83 (2), p.320-363
Main Author: Steponaitis, Vincas P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arable land
Architecture
chiefdoms
Complex/Complexity
Fall lines
Hierarchy/Hierarchal/Hierarchies
location theory
Mexico/Mexican/Mexicans
Political anthropology
political economy
political evolution
Political/Politically/ Politicalization (see also Politics)
Population estimates
Productivity
Scatter diagrams
Settlement/Settler/Settlers
Social evolution
Valley of Mexico
Villages
Watersheds
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Summary:Archaeologists have long recognized that increases in political centralization often coincide with the growth of regional settlement hierarchies. Here I develop a theoretical model which explicitly relates certain aspects of political complexity to variation in settlement size. This model applies specifically to hierarchical societies without well-developed market economies - societies which Service would classify as chiefdoms and (perhaps) simple states. Using settlement data from the Formative Period Valley of Mexico, I show how this model is useful in measuring (1) the number of levels in a regional hierarchy, (2) the degree of political centralization, and (3) the relative amount of surplus food mobilized to support the political establishment.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.1981.83.2.02a00030