Archaic State Interaction: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age

In current archaeological research the failure to find common ground between world-systems theory believers and their counterParts has resulted in a stagnation of theoretical development in regards to modeling how early state societies ititeracted with their neighbors. This book is an attempt to redress these issues. By shifting the theoretical focus away from questions of state evolution to state interaction, the authors develop anthropological models for understanding how ancient states interacted with one another and with societies of scales of economic and political organization. One of their goals has been to identify a theoretical middle ground that is neither dogmatic nor dismissive. The result is innovative approach to modeling-social interaction that will he helpful in exploring the relationship between Social processes that occur at different geographic scales and over different temporal durations. The scholars who participated in the SAR advanced seminar that resulted in this hook used a Particular geographic and temporal context as a case study for developing anthropological models of interaction that are cross-cultural in scope but still deal well with the idiosyncrasies of specific culture histories.

Advance praise for Archaic State Interaction

"An excellent example of a meeting of the minds to hammer at an interesting and current set of problems affecting archaeologists around the world...It is not necessary for the reader to be a 'believer' in world-systems theory to benefit from these essays."-Thomas F. Tartaron, University of Pennsylvania