Study of the origin and development of civilization is of unequaled
importance for understanding the cultural processes that create
human societies. Is cultural evolution directional and regular
across human societies and history, or is it opportunistic and
capricious? Do apparent regularities come from the way inves
tigators construct and manage knowledge, or are they the result of
real constraints on and variations in the actual processes? Can
such questions even be answered? We believe so, but not easily. By
comparing evolutionary sequences from different world civilizations
scholars can judge degrees of similarity and difference and then
attempt explanation. Of course, we must be careful to assess the
influence that societies of the ancient world had on one another
(the issue of pristine versus non-pristine cultural devel opment:
see discussion in Fried 1967; Price 1978). The Central Andes were
the locus of the only societies to achieve pristine civilization in
the southern hemi sphere and only in the Central Andes did
non-literate (non-written language) civ ilization develop. It seems
clear that Central Andean civilization was independent on any graph
of archaic culture change. Scholars have often expressed
appreciation of the research opportunities offered by the Central
Andes as a testing ground for the study of cultural evolu tion
(see, e. g., Carneiro 1970; Ford and Willey 1949: 5; Kosok 1965:
1-14; Lanning 1967: 2-5)."
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