From Leaders to Rulers

"[...]contains nine high-quality essays by well-known archaeologists, who discuss considerable amounts of data from various regions in the world and attendant literature on the interpretation of cultural sequences and social/political change." (Journal of Anthropological Research, 58, 2002)

• 1. INTRODUCTION.- 1 • Cultural Evolution and Political Centralization.- 2 • Communication, Holism, and the Evolution of Sociopolitical Complexity.- II. THE EMERGENCE OF LEADERS.- 3 • The Origins of Centralization: Changing Features of Local and Regional Control during the Rio Grande Classic Period, ad 1325-1540.- 4 • Assessing Political Development in Copper and Bronze Age Southeast Spain.- III. LEADERS TO RULERS.- 5 • Rulers and Warriors: Symbolic Transmission and Social Transformation in Bronze Age Europe.- 6 • Institutionallization of Chiefdoms Why Landscapes Are Built.- 7 • Cosmology and the Institutionalization of Hierarchy in the Maya Region.- IV. RULERS IN POWER.- 8 • Mesoamerican Political Complexity The Corporate¡ªNetwork Dimension.- 9 • Understanding the Timing and Tempo of the Evolution of Political Centralization on the Central Andean Coastline and Beyond.- 10 • “Who Was King? Who Was Not King?” Social Group Composition and Competition in Early Mesopotamian State Societies.- V. CONCLUSION.- 11 • Nonlinear Paths of Political Centralization.- References.