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The Ideology of Authority and the Power of the Pot
Author(s) -
Pauketat Timothy R.,
Emerson Thomas E.
Publication year - 1991
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.1991.93.4.02a00080
Subject(s) - ideology , elite , politics , state (computer science) , meaning (existential) , motif (music) , power (physics) , history , sociology , context (archaeology) , law , archaeology , aesthetics , political science , epistemology , philosophy , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
Ramey Incised pots appear to have been manufactured at and dispersed from centers of chiefly authority during the 11th‐12th centuries A.D. in a portion of the Mississippi Valley. Based on an analysis of motif design, meaning, and the archeological context of vessels, an elite ideology appears indicated in which chiefly lords were the mediators of the cosmos. This archeological perspective in political ideology begins to address the larger questions of the long‐term dynamics of pre‐state polities.