The Earliest States in China A Long-term Trajectory Approach

《The Earliest States in China A Long-term Trajectory Approach》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。

1、JArchaeolResDOI10.1007/s10814-014-9074-8TheEarliestStatesinChina:ALong-termTrajectoryApproachGideonShelach·YitzhakJaffe©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaNewYork2014AbstractTheorigins,development,andmakeupofearlystatesocietiesinChinahavelongbeenafavoritetopicofresearch,thoughtherehasrecentlybe

2、enanupsurgeofattentionamongarchaeologistsinChinaandabroad.ResearchhasbeendominatedbytheidentificationoftheErlitousitefromtheearlysecondmillenniumBCasthecenteroftheearlieststateinChina,sometimesidentifiedwiththeXiaDynasty.Recently,severalscholarshaveemployedneo-evolutionarycriteriafortheiden

3、tificationofErlitousocietyasChina’searlieststateinanattempttoprovideobjectivecriteriaforthetraditionalhistoriographicalnarrative.Overarchingsocialandecologicalmodelsofculturalchangehavebeenseverelycriticizedbyanthro-pologicalarchaeologists,andmanyarchaeologistsstudyingthedevelopmentofancie

4、ntsocietiesprefertofocusonindividualcasestudiesorspecificinstitutionsratherthanonthestate.Incontrasttorecentarchaeologicalscholarshipthathascalledforitstotalabandonment,wefindthe“state”ausefulconceptforunder-standinglocaltrajectoriesaswellascross-culturalcomparisons.Inthisarticlewesuggestaw

5、ayofincorporatingthewarningsagainstsimplisticoverarchingmodelswhilemaintainingthenotionofrapidsociopoliticalchangeassociatedwithstateformation.Basedonananalysisofthelong-termtrajectory,weidentify,innorthChina,twophasesofrapidtransformations:thefirst,startingaround2500BC,whenseveralunstable

6、regionalstatesevolvedanddeclined,andthesecond,around1600BC,whenanintraregionalstate,usuallyidentifiedwiththehistoricalShang,rapidlyevolved.G.Shelach(&)DepartmentofEastAsianStudies,TheHebrewUniversity,Mt.Scopus,91905Jerusalem,Israele-mail:Gideon.Shelach@mail.huji.ac.ilY.JaffeDepartmentofAnt

7、hropology,HarvardUniversity,PeabodyMuseum,11DivinityAve,Cambridge,MA02138,USAe-mail:yitzchakjaffe@fas.harvard.edu123JArchaeolResKeywordsChinesearchaeology·Statedevelopment·Long-termtrajectoryapproach·EarlystatesinNorthChina·Longshan·Erlitou·ErligangIntroduction:Thes