Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Place of Interaction Studies in Archaeological Thought

      • Edward M. Schortman, Patricia A. Urban

      Pages 3-15

3. The Ancient World System

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-21

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   2. The Political Economy of Core-Periphery Systems

      • Robert S. Santley, Rani T. Alexander

      Pages 23-49

   3. Culture and Exchange in Postclassic Oaxaca

      • Joseph W. Whitecotton

      Pages 51-74

   4. Pre-Hispanic Interregional Interaction in Southern Mexico

      • Gary M. Feinman, Linda M. Nicholas

      Pages 75-116

   5. The Transcaucasian “Periphery” in the Bronze Age

      • Philip L. Kohl

      Pages 117-137

   6. Interaction and Isolation

      • Steadman Upham

      Pages 139-152

4. The Political Value of Imports

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-156

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   2. Long-Distance Contacts, Elite Aspirations, and the Age of Discovery in Cosmological Context

      • Mary W. Helms

      Pages 157-174

   3. Tradition, Identity, and Change beyond the Roman Frontier

      • Peter S. Wells

      Pages 175-188

5. Warfare

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 189-191

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   2. Ethnicity and Adaptation

      • J. Stephen Athens

      Pages 193-219

   3. Central Mexico’s Influences in Jalisco and Nayarit during the Classic Period

      • Phil C. Weigand

      Pages 221-232

6. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233

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   2. Current Trends in Interaction Research

      • Edward M. Schortman, Patricia A. Urban

      Pages 235-255

7. Back Matter

   Pages 257-259

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Archaeological research on interregional interaction processes has recently reasserted itself after a long hiatus following the eclipse of diffusion studies. This "rebirth" was marked not only by a sudden increase in publications that were focused on interac­ tion questions, but also by a diversity of perspectives on past contacts. To perdurable interests in warfare were added trade studies by the late 196Os. These viewpoints, in turn, were rapidly joined in the late 1970s by a wide range of intellectual schemes stimulated by developments in French Marxism (referred to in various ways; termed political ideology here) and sociology (Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems model). Researchers ascribing to the aforementioned intellectual frameworks were united in their dissatisfaction with attempts to explain sociopolitical change that treated in­ dividual cultures or societies as isolated entities. Only by reconstructing the complex intersocietal networks in which polities were integrated-the natures of these ties, who mediated the connections, and the political, economic, and ideological significance of the goods and ideas that moved along them-could adequate ex­ planations of sociopolitical shifts be formulated. Archaeologists seemed to be re­ discovering in the late twentieth century the importance of interregional contacts in processes of sociopolitical change. The diversity of perspectives that resulted seemed to be symptomatic of both an uncertainty of how best to approach this topic and the importance archaeologists attributed to it.

• ancient world
• bronze
• bronze age
• culture
• economy
• identity
• interaction
• interregional interaction
• issue
• science
• social change
• tradition

• Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Kenyon College, Gambier, USA

  Edward M. Schortman, Patricia A. Urban

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