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Communal Societies and the Emergence of Elites in the Prehistoric American Southeast
Article first published online: 28 JUN 2008
DOI: 10.1525/ap3a.1992.3.1.111
Issue
1551-8248/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=3542f8717b147a8cb911c1c1dabb04af5f8ffd65 "Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association")
Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association
Special Issue: Lords of the Southeast: Social Inequality and the Native Elites of Southeastern North American
Volume 3, Issue 1, pages 111–143, January 1992
Additional Information
How to Cite
Nassaney, M. S. (1992), Communal Societies and the Emergence of Elites in the Prehistoric American Southeast. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 3: 111–143. doi: 10.1525/ap3a.1992.3.1.111
Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 JUN 2008
- Article first published online: 28 JUN 2008
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
The emergence of elites in the prehistoric American Southeast takes place within the context of communal societies. Incipient elites exacerbate contradictions that appear under conditions of population growth, subsistence intensification, decreased mobility, and technological reorganization within the communal mode of production to undermine egalitarianism and consolidate their positions of status. Archaeological data from the Plum Bayou culture of central Arkansas suggest that the elite had not completely transformed communal life despite attempts at accumulation and monopolization. Their strategies of aggrandizement were effectively resisted by non-elites and communalism was ultimately restored in the region. The dynamic that pushes egalitarian, kinbased societies towards inequality in the Southeast appears to be cyclical rather than linear.