The Evolution of political systems : sociopolitics in small-scale sedentary societies /

Based on a seminar held in the late 1980s at the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this volume is a collection of ten articles on the political transformations brought about by the new demographic and economic circumstances of sedentary life. The many technological, economic, and social changes occurring because of the development of settled agriculture set the stage for political centralization, greater socioeconomic inequalities, and social ranking. The essay authors, cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, hold differing viewpoints (including Marxian) concerning the causes and implications of the rise of agriculture. They draw upon ethnographic and archaeological data from Africa and North and South America on "middle-range" societies (between bands of people and centralized, hierarchical, and bureaucratic states). The bibliographies of the chapters are combined at the end, an annoyance for scholars, teachers, and others who wish to make use of single chapters. The volume is a useful companion to Allen W. Johnson and Timothy Earls's The Evolution of Human Societies (CH, Jan'88). Graduate level. -L. Beck, Washington University