AAA Annual Meeting Program
AAANET Home  >  Annual Meeting  > Program Search 

AAA Annual Meeting Program Details

<< Back to Search Results  |  Start New Search >>

View Session Details
Paper Information:
Type: Paper
Paper Title: COUNTERNARRATIVES AND COUNTERINTUITION: ACCOMMODATING THE UNPREDICTED IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY
Author: STEVEN FALCONER   
Date/Time: Thu., 10:45 AM
Co-Author(s): STEVEN FALCONER 
Abstract: The archaeology of complex societies features the enduring interpretive paradigms of early urbanism and state-level authority. In addition to pointing out the generalizing advantages inherent in these broadly-accepted and broadly-applied paradigms, Norm Yoffee has surgically dissected their teleological pitfalls. This paper considers unanticipated archaeological expressions of social complexity, at the community and society-wide levels, drawn from the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. These examples illustrate a leitmotif in Yoffee’s scholarship: the importance of alternative, counterintuitive paths in the long-term course of civilization. Seemingly anomalous examples of archaeological communities unparalleled by historical or ethnographic analogues, and incipient complex societies displaying resistance to further complexity, exemplify the explanatory value of accommodating the unexpected in the archaeology of early complex societies.

Program Number: 2-0225
Session Title: COUNTERNARRATIVES OF STATE, CIVILIZATION, AND HISTORY: PAPERS IN HONOR OF NORMAN YOFFEE
Session Sponsor: Archaeology Division
Session Date/Time: Thu., 8:00 AM-11:45 AM
Organizer(s): GEOFF EMBERLING, ADAM SMITH (University of Chicago), LORI KHATCHADOURIAN (Cornell University) 
Chair(s): GEOFF EMBERLING, ADAM SMITH (University of Chicago), LORI KHATCHADOURIAN (Cornell University)  
View Session Details


Schedule-at-a-Glance

If you have any questions about the program, please contact the AAA Meetings Department at aaameetings@aaanet.org.