Editorial: Oxbow Books
Colección: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Societies (MAtAS) ; 3
Número de páginas: 352 págs. 24.0 x 17.0 cm
Fecha de edición: 01-01-2022
EAN: 9781789258622
ISBN: 978-1-78925-862-2
Precio (sin IVA): 66,86 €
Precio (IVA incluído): 69,53 €
The organisation and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. This book explores such small-scale socio-political organisations, their potential and the historical trajectories they stimulated. A selection of historical case studies from different regions of the world may help rethink current concepts and views about the emergence and organisation of political complexity and the mechanisms that prevented, occasionally, the emergence of solid polities. They may also cast some light over trajectories of historical transformation, still poorly understood as are the limits of effective state power. This book explores the importance of comparative research and long-term historical perspectives to avoid simplistic interpretations, based on the characteristics of modern Western states abusively used retrospectively.