Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World [Paperback]

This volume examines how factional competition in ancient New World societies led to the development of chiefdoms, states and empires.This volume examines how factional competition in the kinship and political structures in ancient New World societies led to the development of chiefdoms, states and empires.This volume examines how factional competition in the kinship and political structures in ancient New World societies led to the development of chiefdoms, states and empires.Factionalism is an important force of social transformation, and this volume examines how factional competition in the kinship and political structures in ancient New World societies led to the development of chiefdoms, states and empires. The case studies, from a range of New World societies, represent all levels of non-egalitarian societies and a wide variety of ecological settings in the New World. They document the effects of factionalism on the structure of particular polities: for example, how it might have led to the growth of social inequality, or to changing patterns of chiefly authority, or to state formation and expansion, or institutional specialisation. The work is a creative and substantial contribution to our understanding of the political dynamics in early state society, and will interest archaeologists, anthropologists, political scientists and historians.Part I. Introduction: 1. Factional competition and political development in the New World: an introduction Elizabeth M. Brumfiel; Part II. Chiefdoms: 2. The power of prestige: competitive generosity and the emergence of rank societies in lowland Mesoamerica John E. Clark and Michael Blake; 3. Factional ascendance, dimensions of leadership, and the development of centralized authority Charles S. Spencer; 4. External warfare and the internal politics of northern South American tribes and chiefdoms Elsa M. Redmond; 5. Chiefdom rivalries, control, and external contacts in lower Central America Mary W. Helms; 6. Factional competitlÆ