The author presents a large comparative database derived from ethnographic and architectural research in Southeast Asia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and other areas; proposes new methodologies for comparative analyses of houses; and critically examines existing methodologies, theories, and data. His work expands on and systematizes comparative and cross-cultural approaches to the study of households and their environments to provide a firm foundation for this emerging line of study.

Over two thousand years ago, Oaxaca, Mexico, was the site of one of the New World's earliest episodes of primary state formation and urbanism, and today it is one of the world's archaeologically best-studied regions. This volume, which thoroughly revises and updates the first edition, provides a highly readable yet comprehensive path to acquaint readers with one of the earliest and best-known examples of Native American state formation and its consequences as seen from the perspectives of urbanism, technology, demography, commerce, households, and religion and ritual. Written by prominent archaeological researchers who have devoted decades to Oaxacan research and to the development of suitable social theory, the book places ancient Oaxaca within the context of the history of ideas that have addressed the causes and consequences of social evolutionary change. It also critically evaluates the potential applicability of more recent thinking about state building grounded in collective action and related theories.

Over two thousand years ago, Oaxaca, Mexico, was the site of one of the New World's earliest episodes of primary state formation and urbanism, and today it is one of the world's archaeologically best-studied regions. This volume, which thoroughly revises and updates the first edition, provides a highly readable yet comprehensive path to acquaint readers with one of the earliest and best-known examples of Native American state formation and its consequences as seen from the perspectives of urbanism, technology, demography, commerce, households, and religion and ritual. Written by prominent archaeological researchers who have devoted decades to Oaxacan research and to the development of suitable social theory, the book places ancient Oaxaca within the context of the history of ideas that have addressed the causes and consequences of social evolutionary change. It also critically evaluates the potential applicability of more recent thinking about state building grounded in collective action and related theories.

The author presents a large comparative database derived from ethnographic and architectural research in Southeast Asia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and other areas; proposes new methodologies for comparative analyses of houses; and critically examines existing methodologies, theories, and data. His work expands on and systematizes comparative and cross-cultural approaches to the study of households and their environments to provide a firm foundation for this emerging line of study.

Mesoamerica has become one of the world's most important areas for research into the emergence of complex human societies. Between 10,000 years ago and the arrival of the Spanish in 1521, some of the most significant changes in the evolution of human societies occurred. These included the emergence of agriculture and sedentary villages, the growth of centralized governments (chiefdoms and states), and the rise of market systems, cities, and highly stratified social systems. In the 1970s and 1980s a number of ambitious research efforts produced exciting data on culture change in Mesoamerica. In this revised and updated 1993 edition of a book first published in 1981, the authors present a synthesis of Mesoamerican prehistory, focusing on three of its most intensively studied regions, the Valleys of Oaxaca and Mexico and the Maya lowlands. An original framework of ideas is developed to explain long-term change in complex societies.

This volume forms the report of an archaeological survey project carried out in an area of the coastal strip of southern Turkey. Tha aims of the project were to identify and investigate patterns of rural settlement, provide information on the process of local urbanism and to put this within the context of social formations in other Mediterranean regions. Through pedestrian survey, site densities could be studied by period and speculation was made of the factors causing and creating rural and economic development, the impact of local and wider administration on the area, urban and rural relationships, population growth and the processes of population growth and decline.

Co-published with the Society for Economic Anthropology, this work explores the social, political and economic contexts and consequences of economic interaction beyond the local systems. Because the focus of economic analysis is often local, particularly in anthropology, this book specifically aims analysis beyond the local system of economic interaction.