Traces of Social Inequality: Moment in time

By: Simeon, Everistus

Acquiring higher social rank is possible in differ-ent ways based on four main sources of power (eco-nomic, military, ideological, and political or fam-ily social power) (Feinman 1995; Hayden 1995; Earle 1997). These are not mutually exclusive cat-egories by any means; leaders or chiefs can gener-ally use them in combination (Mann 1986; Earle 1997, 6-8). Namely, a complex system of social in-equality with power of different origins can exist in a society. In spite of this, archaeologists usually concentrate only on the economic or political way of obtaining power, neglecting the role of religion, rituals or ideology when they analyse prehistor-ic social inequalities. In analysing archaeological finds they usually treat presumed or real ritual ar-tefacts or features absolutely independently from this "secular" power, although these are often firmly interconnected. This has two main reasons: first, according to the processual approach, social structure and the religion/belief system are each independent subsystems of the archaeological cul-ture (Clarke 1968, Fig. 23; Renfrew 1972, 15-44, 440-504). Secondly, they consider the sacred and profane as universal dichotomies (Eliade 1994; Durkheim 2003). However, evidence frequently suggests that this dichotomy does

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09QP6Q8C7
• ISBN13: 9798404812343
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"