Hierarchy and Heterarchy in the American Southwest: A Comment on Mcguire and Saitta

Abstract

McGuire and Saitta (1996) give voice to widespread dissatisfaction with artificial dichotomies that lead to the classification of historic and late Prehispanic puebloan societies as “egalitarian” or “hierarchical” in organization. They suggest a solution, a dialectical approach, that rejects processual archaeology in general, although not in its entirety. Another alternative approach, proposed here, relies on the concept of heterarchy (e.g., Crumley 1994), which, surprisingly, has not yet been used in southwestern archaeology. The proposed use of this concept does not involve rejection of a processual framework or represent a comprehensive critique of McGuire and Saitta's proposed dialectical approach.

Fortifications and Enclosures in European Prehistory: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

“…Several theoretical frameworks, and, of course, new terminologies, have been introduced that try to articulate methods for usefully sorting through the large amount of social variability exhibited in these kinds of societies. These include heterarchy (Crumley 1979;Ehrenreich 1995;Levy 1995;Rautman 1998;Rogers 1995), corporate versus network-based organizational strategies (e.g., Blanton et al 1996;Feinman 2000), rituality (Yoffee 2001), hierocracy (Fowles 2003), and tribal cycles (Parkinson 1999(Parkinson , 2002b among others. Nevertheless, our current understanding of the processes and conditions that led to the creation of these more formally integrated segmentary social systems in different parts of the world has been hindered by a lack of comparative research at these broader temporal and geographic scales.…”

Anarchism and the Archaeology of Anarchic Societies

“…Archaeologists have pursued analyses of heterarchy in numerous regions of the world (e.g., Conlee 2004;Ehrenreich, Crumley, and Levy 1995;Rautman 1998;Scarborough, Valdez, and Dunning 2003), fueled in part by a lack of fit between archaeological data and expectations derived from hierarchical models. Crumley (1995), for example, found that site distributions in the Celtic Iron Age did not adhere to central place theory and sought a model that reflected the complexity, but not hierarchy, of Celtic chiefdoms.…”

Managing a Tropical Environment: State Development in Early Historical‐Era Kedah, Malaysia

“…Overuse led to massive wasting of soils, Although the structure of the state that emerged their transport downstream to the coast, the infilling in Kedah clearly reflects the hierarchical structures of estuaries with silts and clays, and the accumulation of ^distributive exchange, I suggest that reciprocal, unranked interactions, which are more difficult to recognize archaeologically, were equally important. Kedah's system was heterarchical: a very helpful concept that can be used to define where in the system reciprocity worked, and why, and for how long (Brumfiel 1995;Crumley 1979Crumley :144,1994Potter and King 1995;Rautman 1998;also, see Mclntosh, Roosevelt, this volume). How unranked relationships worked can in turn help to explain how the more prominent, ranked system worked.…”

“…These permanent structures, like others recorded at sites throughout south-central Kedah, include primarily small Buddhist and Hindu shrines, and were almost certainly built for use by foreign merchants or other visitors. Although the styles of many shrines in Kedah are considered datable (Quaritch Wales 1940; see also Allen 1988:234-253, and1998), the remains found at Kg. S. Mas are very fragmentary, and no precise dates have been assigned to the structures themselves.…”