Premium
Settlement Hierarchies and Political Complexity in Nonmarket Societies: The Formative Period of the Valley of Mexico
Author(s) -
Steponaitis Vincas P.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1981.83.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - chiefdom , settlement (finance) , politics , hierarchy , formative assessment , period (music) , human settlement , economy , political economy , economic geography , geography , development economics , political science , economics , sociology , archaeology , law , pedagogy , physics , finance , acoustics , payment
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.