After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex SocietiesGlenn M. Schwartz, John J. Nichols From the Euphrates Valley to the southern Peruvian Andes, early complex societies have risen and fallen, but in some cases they have also been reborn. Prior archaeological investigation of these societies has focused primarily on emergence and collapse. This is the first book-length work to examine the question of how and why early complex urban societies have reappeared after periods of decentralization and collapse. Ranging widely across the Near East, the Aegean, East Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes, these cross-cultural studies expand our understanding of social evolution by examining how societies were transformed during the period of radical change now termed “collapse.” They seek to discover how societal complexity reemerged, how second-generation states formed, and how these re-emergent states resembled or differed from the complex societies that preceded them. The contributors draw on material culture as well as textual and ethnohistoric data to consider such factors as preexistent institutions, structures, and ideologies that are influential in regeneration; economic and political resilience; the role of social mobility, marginal groups, and peripheries; and ethnic change. In addition to presenting a number of theoretical viewpoints, the contributors also propose reasons why regeneration sometimes does not occur after collapse. A concluding contribution by Norman Yoffee provides a critical exegesis of “collapse” and highlights important patterns found in the case histories related to peripheral regions and secondary elites, and to the ideology of statecraft. After Collapse blazes new research trails in both archaeology and the study of social change, demonstrating that the archaeological record often offers more clues to the “dark ages” that precede regeneration than do text-based studies. It opens up a new window on the past by shifting the focus away from the rise and fall of ancient civilizations to their often more telling fall and rise. CONTRIBUTORS Bennet Bronson Arlen F. Chase Diane Z. Chase Christina A. Conlee Lisa Cooper Timothy S. Hare Alan L. Kolata Marilyn A. Masson Gordon F. McEwan Ellen Morris Ian Morris Carlos Peraza Lope Kenny Sims Miriam T. Stark Jill A. Weber Norman Yoffee |
Contents
From Collapse to Regeneration | 3 |
The Demise and Regeneration of Bronze Age Urban Centers in the Euphrates Valley of Syria | 18 |
Amorites Onagers and Social Reorganization in Middle Bronze Age Syria | 38 |
Lo Nobles Lament the Poor Rejoice | 58 |
The Collapse and Regeneration of Complex Society in Greece 1500500 BC | 72 |
Inca State Origins Collapse and Regeneration in the Southern Peruvian Andes | 85 |
Regeneration as Transformation Postcollapse Society in Nasca Peru | 99 |
After State Collapse How Tumilaca Communities Developed in the Upper Moquegua Valley Peru | 114 |
Patterns of Political Regeneration in Southeast and East Asia | 137 |
From Funan to Angkor Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia | 144 |
Framing the Maya Collapse Continuity Discontinuity Method and Practice in the Classic to Postclassic Southern Maya Lowlands | 168 |
Postclassic Maya Society Regenerated at Mayapán | 188 |
Before and After Collapse Reflections on the Regeneration of Social Complexity | 208 |
Notes on Regeneration | 222 |
Other editions - View all
After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies Glenn M. Schwartz,John J. Nichols Limited preview - 2010 |
After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies Glenn M. Schwartz,John J. Nichols No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Acropolis administrative agricultural Amorite Ancient Angkor Angkorian archaeological architecture areas Asian Belize burial Cambodia Cambridge Caracol central century ceramic Cerro Baúl chapter Chase Chenla Chichén Itzá Chokepukio Classic Maya Classic period collapse and regeneration communities complex societies Conlee contexts cultural Curvers Cuzco dynasty Early Bronze Age Ebla economic Egypt elites equid evidence excavated frame Funan groups History household ideology Inca institutions Intermediate Period Khmer Khmer empire Kingdom Late Classic Maya society Mayapán McEwan Mekong Mesoamerica Middle Bronze Age Middle Horizon monuments Moquegua Moquegua Valley mortuary Nasca non-elite northern obsidian organization patterns Peru political populations Postclassic Maya Postclassic period postcollapse pottery production region ritual rulers Schwartz settlements sociopolitical Southeast Asia southern strategies structures Studies suggests symbolic Syria template regeneration temples Terminal Classic Tikal tion Tiwanaku Tiwanaku migrants trade traditional transformation Tumilaca Umm el-Marra University Press urban Wari and Tiwanaku Wari empire Yoffee