Abstract
Chipped stone tools can figure prominently in the political economy of social ranking and the transformation of social relationships. For instance, incipient elites may try to aggrandize themselves by controlling access to lithic resources or the organization of tool production. In this paper I examine three aspects of stone tool technology—raw material acquisition, labor allocation, and productive intensification—to explore how lithic artifacts were implicated in the integration and disintegration of Plum Bayou culture in central Arkansas (ca. A.D. 700–950). The analyses expose longitudinal changes in the organization of technology which suggest rudimentary attempts at control and/or intensification. Despite these efforts, socially ranked individuals apparently failed to monopolize raw materials or the production process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bender, B. 1985. Emergent Tribal Formations in the American Midcontinent. American Antiquity 50: 52–62.
Bender, B. 1989. The Roots of Inequality. In Domination and Resistance, edited by D. Miller, M. Rowlands, and C. Tilley, pp. 83–95. Unwin Hyman, London.
Binford, L. R. 1979. Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35: 255–273.
Branner, G. C. 1927. Outlines of Arkansas’ Mineral Resources. Bureau of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture and State Geological Survey, Little Rock.
Braverman, H. 1974. Labor and Monopoly Capital. Monthly Review Press, New York.
Brown, J. A., R. A. Kerber, and H. D. Winters. 1990. Trade and the Evolution of Exchange Relations at the Beginning of the Mississippian Period. In The Mississippian Emergence, edited by B. Smith, pp. 251–280. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.
Brumfiel, E. M., and T. Earle (editors). 1987. Specialisation, Exchange, and Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Clark, J. E. 1987. Politics, Prismatic Blades, and Mesoamerican Civilization. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by J. K. Johnson and C. A. Morrow, pp. 259–284. Westview Press, Boulder.
Clark, John E. 1991. Craft Specialization and the Emergence of Rank Societies. Paper presented at the 90th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago.
Cobb, C. R. 1989. An Appraisal of the Role of Mill Creek Chert Hoes in Mississippian Exchange Systems. Southeastern Archaeology 8: 79–92.
Cobb, C. R. 1993. Archaeological Approaches to the Political Economy of Nonstratified Societies. In Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 5, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 43–100. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Cross, J. R. 1990. Specialized Production in Non-Stratified Society: An Example from the Late Archaic Northeast. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.
Dalton, G. 1960. A Note of Clarification on Economic Surplus. American Anthropologist 62: 483–490.
Dalton, G. 1963. Economic Surplus, Once Again. American Anthropologist 64: 389–394.
Earle, T. 1981. Comment on “Evolution of Specialized Pottery” by P. M. Rice. Current Anthropology 22: 230–231.
Etchieson, M. 1989. Prehistoric Use of Geological Resources in the Ouachita Mountains. Paper presented at the 54th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.
Frankenstein, S., and M. J. Rowlands. 1978. The Internal Structure and Regional Context of Early Iron Age Society in Southwestern Germany. University of London, Institute of Archaeology Bulletin 15: 73–112.
Fried, M. 1967. The Evolution of Political Society. Random House, New York.
Fritz, G. J. 1988. Adding the Plant Remains to Assessments of Late Woodland/Early Mississippi Period Plant Husbandry. Paper presented at the 53rd annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix.
Gero, J. M. 1989. Assessing Social Information in Material Objects: How Well Do Lithics Measure Up? In Time, Energy and Stone Tools, edited by R. Torrence, pp. 92–105. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gero, J. M. 1991. Genderlithics: Women’s Roles in Stone Tool Production. In Engendering Archaeology, edited by J. M. Gero and M. W. Conkey, pp. 163–193. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Haas, J. 1982. The Evolution of the Prehistoric State. Columbia University Press, New York.
Hall, R. L. 1979. In Search of the Ideology of the Adena-Hopewell Climax. In Hopewell Archaeology, edited by D. Brose and N. Greber, pp. 258–265. Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio.
Harris, M. 1959. The Economy Has No Surplus? American Anthropologist 61: 189–199.
Hegmon, M. 1989. The Styles of Integration: Ceramic Style and Pueblo 1 Integrative Architecture in Southwestern Colorado. In The Architecture of Social Organization in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by W. D. Lipe and M. Hegmon, pp. 125-142. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado, Occasional Paper 1.
Hemmings, E. T. 1985. Analysis of Materials. In The Alexander Site, edited by E. T. Hemmings and J. H. House, pp. 27-48. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series, No. 24. Fayetteville.
Hodder, I. 1982. Symbols in Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hoffman, T. L. 1982a. Chipped Stone Tool Manufacturing Processes in Mound D at the Toltec Mounds Site (3LN42). M. A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas.
Hoffman, T. L. 1982b. Lithic Technology at Toltec: Preliminary Results from Mound D. In Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture, edited by M. A. Rolingson, pp. 54-59. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series 18. Fayetteville.
Holmes, W. H. 1891. Aboriginal Novaculite Quarries in Garland County, Arkansas. American Anthropologist 4(old series): 313–316.
House, J. H. 1975. Summary of Archaeological Knowledge Updated with Newly Gathered Data. In The Cache River Archeological Project, assembled by M. B. Schiffer and J. H. House, pp. 153-162. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series, No. 8. Fayetteville.
House, J. H. 1980. Archaic Occupation in the Arkansas River Lowland. Arkansas Archeological Society, Field Notes 171: 5–10.
Howard, J. M. 1986. Arkansas Quartz Crystals. Pamphlet prepared by the Arkansas Geological Commission, Little Rock.
Jenny, W. P. 1891. Ancient Novaculite Mines Near Magnet Cove, Hot Springs County, Arkansas. American Anthropologist 4(old series): 316–318.
Johnson, J. K. 1989. The Utility of Production Trajectory Modeling as a Framework for Regional Analysis. In Alternative Approaches to Lithic Analysis, edited by D. O. Henry and G. H. Odell, pp. 119-138. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 1.
Johnson, J. K. 1993a. North American Biface Production Trajectory Modeling in Historic Perspective. Plains Anthropologist 38: 151–162.
Johnson, J. K. 1993b. Poverty Point Period Crystal Drill Bits, Microliths, and Social Organization in the Yazoo Basin, Mississippi. Southeastern Archaeology 12: 59–64.
Kus, S. M. 1983. The Social Representation of Space: Dimensioning the Cosmological and the Quotidian. In Archaeological Hammers and Theories, edited by J. A. Moore and A. S. Keene, pp. 277–298. Academic Press, New York.
Lee, R. 1988. Reflections on Primitive Communism. In Hunters and Gatherers 1: History, Evolution, and Social Change, edited by T. Ingold, D. Riches, and J. Woodburn, pp. 252–268. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Lee, R. 1990. Primitive Communism and the Origin of Social Inequality. In The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, edited by S. Upham, pp. 225–246. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Manger, W. L. 1986. Regional Geological Setting and the Availability of Various Raw Materials. In Village Creek: An Explicitly Regional Approach to Cultural Resources, by T. C. Klinger, pp. 204-213. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Report, No. 26. Fayetteville.
Miller, D., and C. Tilley (editors). 1984. Ideology, Power, and Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Nassaney, M. S. 1991. Spatial-Temporal Dimensions of Social Integration during the Coles Creek Period in Central Arkansas. In Stability, Transformation, and Variation: The Late Woodland Southeast, edited by M. S. Nassaney and C. R. Cobb, pp. 177–220. Plenum Press, New York.
Nassaney, M. S. 1992a. Communal Societies and the Emergence of Elites in the Prehistoric American Southeast. In Lords of the Southeast: Social Inequality and the Native Elites of Southeastern North America, edited by A. Barker and T. R. Pauketat, pp. 111-143. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 3.
Nassaney, M. S. 1992b. Experiments in Social Rankingin Central Arkansas. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.
Nassaney, M. S. 1994. The Historical and Archaeological Context of Plum Bayou Culture in Central Arkansas. Southeastern Archaeology 13: 36–55.
Nassaney, M. S., and R. Hoffman. 1992. Archaeological Investigations at the Fitzhugh Site (3LN212): A Plum Bayou Culture Household in Central Arkansas. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 17: 139–165.
Parry, W. J., and R. L. Kelly. 1987. Expedient Core Technology and Sedentism. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by J. K. Johnson and C. A. Morrow, pp. 285–304. Westview Press, Boulder.
Paynter, R. 1982. Models of Spatial Inequality Academic Press, New York.
Phillips, P. 1970. Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949–1955. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 60. Harvard University, Cambridge.
Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1979. Desana Shaman’s Rock Crystals and the Hexagonal Universe. Journal of Latin American Lore 5: 117–128.
Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1981. Things of Beauty Replete With Meaning—Metals and Crystals in Columbian Indian Cosmology. In Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, edited by D. H. Seligman, pp. 17-33. Natural History Museum Alliance of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles.
Renfrew, C. 1975. Trade as Action at a Distance. In Ancient Civilization and Trade, edited by J. A. Sabloff and C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, pp. 3–59. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Rick, J. W. 1978. Heat-Altered Cherts of the Lower Illinois Valley: An Experimental Study in Prehistoric Technology. Northwestern University Archeological Program, Prehistoric Records, No. 2. Evanston.
Rolingson, M. A. 1982a. The Concept of Plum Bayou Culture. In EmergingPatterns of Plum Bayou Culture, edited by M. A. Rolingson, pp. 87-93. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series 18. Fayetteville.
Rolingson, M. A. 1990a. The 1989 Society Dig at the Toltec Mounds State Park. Arkansas Archeological Society, Field Notes 233: 6–12.
Rolingson, M. A. 1990b. The Toltec Mounds Site: A Ceremonial Center in the Arkansas River Lowland. In The Mississippian Emergence, edited by B. D. Smith, pp. 27–49. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Rolingson, M. A. (editor). 1982b. Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series 18. Fayetteville.
Roseberry, W. 1989. Anthropologies and Histories: Essays in Culture, History, and Political Economy. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Sabo, G., III, D. B. Waddell, and J. H. House. 1982. A Cultural Resource Overview of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, Arkansas. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Submitted to the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, Russellville, Arkansas.
Sahlins, M. 1963. Poor Man, Rich Man, Big-Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia and Polynesia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 5: 285–303.
Sahlins, M. 1972. Stone Age Economics. Aldine, New York.
Sassaman, K. E. 1992. Lithic Technology and the Hunter-Gatherer Sexual Division of Labor. North American Archaeologist 13: 249–262.
Seeman, M. F. 1985. Craft Specialization and Tool Kit Structure: A Systemic Perspective on the Midcontinental Flint Knapper. In Lithic Resource Procurement: Proceedings for the Second Conference on Prehistoric Chert Exploitation, edited by S. C. Vehik, pp. 7-36. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 4. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Service, E. 1971. Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective. Second Edition. Random House, New York.
Stanfill, A. L. 1980. Lithic Artifact Analysis of the 1976 Surface Collection from the Toltec Site. MA. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas.
Stewart-Abernathy J. 1982. Ceramic Studies at the Toltec Mounds Site: Basis for a Tentative Cultural Sequence. In Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture, edited by M. A. Rolingson, pp. 44-53. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series 18. Fayetteville.
Tilley C. 1984. Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Middle Neolithic of Southern Sweden. In Ideology, Power, and Prehistory, edited by D. Miller and C. Tilley, pp. 111–146. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Thomas, C. 1894. Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1890–1891, 12: 17–742.
Torrence, R. 1989. Retooling: Towards a Behavioral Theory of Stone Tools. In Time, Energy and Stone Tools, edited by R. Torrence, pp. 57–66. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Tosi, M. 1984. The Notion of Craft Specialization and Its Representation in the Archaeological Record of Early States in the Turanian Basin. In Marxist Approaches in Archaeology, edited by M. Spriggs, pp. 22–52. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Upham, S. (editor). 1990. The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Waddell, D. B. 1987. A Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed Wastewater Treatment Project Right-of-Way, Clinton, Van Buren County, Arkansas. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Submitted to the Clinton Water and Sewer Department, Clinton, Arkansas.
Waddell, D. B., J. H. House, M. Colburn, F. King, and M. K. Marks. 1987. Results of Final Testing for Significance at the Ink Bayou Site (3PU252), Pulaski County, Arkansas. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Submitted to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Little Rock.
Weissner, P. 1977. Hxaro: A Regional System of Reciprocity for Reducing Risk among the!Kung San. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.
Welch, P. D. 1986. Models of Chiefdom Economy: Prehistoric Moundville as a Case Study. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.
Williams, N. F. 1959. Mineral Resources of Arkansas. Arkansas Geological and Conservation Commission, Bulletin 6. Little Rock.
Wobst, H. M. 1977. Stylistic Behavior and Information Exchange. In For the Director: Research Essays in Honor of James B. Griffin, edited by C. Cleland, pp. 317-342. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Anthropological Papers 6.
Wolf, E. R. 1966. Peasants. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Wolf, E. R. 1982. Europe and the People without History. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nassaney, M.S. (1996). The Role of Chipped Stone in the Political Economy of Social Ranking. In: Odell, G.H. (eds) Stone Tools. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0173-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0173-6_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0175-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0173-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive