Ranked societies are characterized by disparities in personal status that are often accompanied by the concentration of power and authority in the hands of a few dominant individuals. They stand between the sophistication of developed, states and the relative simplicity of most hunter-gatherer groups and early agriculturalists. In some places and times they represented relatively brief phases of transition to more complex forms of organization; in others they existed as stable forms of adaptation for thousands of years. They are thus of great interest for archaeologists seeking to understand the dynamics of cultural evolution.
| ISBN: | 9780521242820 |
| Publication date: | 2nd September 1982 |
| Author: | Colin Renfrew, Stephen Shennan |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 167 pages |
| Series: | New Directions in Archaeology |
| Genres: |
Archaeology |