Regional pathways to long-term inequality in the later prehistoric societies of southern Iberis

研究地中海盆地后来的史前社会的考古学家倾向于强调新石器时代农学家的传统性质，他们被认为在青铜时代社会分层发展之前一直保持着基本上平等主义的存在。最传统的农学家一直被认为存在于西地中海地区，在那里，对于社会分层如何以及何时出现也存在分歧。对一些学者来说，长期的不平等直到公元前第一个千年才出现，而对另一些学者来说，它们在公元前第三和第二个千年以早期阶级/国家社会的形式出现在西班牙南部。那些静止的、纯粹平等主义的早期农业社会的假设受到人类学论点的质疑，即不平等可能存在于所有社会中，农业社会既不平等也不不平等。相反，他们经历了或多或少的平等主义社会关系的周期，并有自己的内部紧张、冲突和社会裂变和融合的周期。这意味着存在持续不断的紧张关系，贝尔-尼安的地区和社区利益，结果是通向长期不平等和社会分层的不同路径。西班牙南部和葡萄牙的考古记录在过去20年里通过密集的挖掘和地面调查而发生了革命性的变化。这为我们提供了一个机会来研究它的早期农业社会在多大程度上符合这些人类学论点的期望。这项研究的目的是对不同地区进行比较研究，以寻找这些社会的性质及其随时间变化的证据。不同地区、不同时期社会关系性质的证据是什么？社会变化在多大程度上是线性的(即走向更大的复杂性，或从平等主义社会关系到等级社会关系)或周期性的(即社会裂变和融合的时期，或不平等程度更高或更低的时期)？长期不平等是什么时候出现的？这些在多大程度上可以归因于阶级关系和一种国家社会形态的出现？这一研究的好处可以从不同的层面上看到。首先，它将把大量关于西班牙南部和葡萄牙早期农业社会的新数据带给广大讲英语的受众，他们无法接触到当地文献或无法阅读其原始语言的文献。其次，它将提供对早期农业社会变化的关键研究的案例研究，这将对在地中海其他地区和其他地区工作的学者有价值。第三，它将强调在考古记录中看到的这种社会的物质证据可以在多大程度上认识到社会不平等。第四，它将引发关于早期国家社会性质的广泛辩论，并对英语世界对这类社会的正常定义提出关键问题。最后，它将有助于西班牙和葡萄牙考古学家与研究早期农业社会和英语世界社会变化的同行之间的互动和辩论。

Archaeologists studying the later prehistoric societies of the Mediterranean basin have tended to emphasis the traditional nature of Neolithic agriculturalists, which are thought to have maintained an essentially egalitarian existence until the development of social stratification in the Bronze Age. The most traditional agriculturalists have been argued to have existed in the West Mediterranean, where opinion is also divided as to how and when social stratification emerged. For some scholars, long term inequalities did not emerge until the first millennium BC, while for others they were present in the form of early class/state societies in southern Spain in the third and second millennia BC.The assumption those early agricultural societies where static and purely egalitarian is questioned by anthropological arguments that inequalities probably existed in all societies and that agricultural societies were neither equal nor unequal. Instead they went through cycles of more or less egalitarian social relations and had their own internal tensions, conflicts and cycles of social fission and fusion. This meant that there were continual tensions bel'-Neen sectional and communal interests and, as a result, different 'pathways' towards tong term inequalities and social stratification.The archaeological record of southern Spain and Portugal has been revolutionised during the last two decades by the intensity of excavations and surface surveys. This provides us INith an opportunity to study the extent to which its early agricultural societies conformed to the expectations of these anthropological arguments. The aim of this research is to undertake a comparative study of different regions to search for evidence of the nature of these societies and their change through time. What is the evidence for the nature of social relations in different regions at different times? To what extent is the social change linear (i.e. towards greater complexity, or from egalitarian to hierarchical social relations) or cyclical (i.e. periods of social fission and fusions, or of greater or lesser inequality)? When did long term inequalities emerge? To what extent can these be attributed to the appearance of relations of class and a form of state society?The benefits of this research can be seen on different levels. First it will bring a mass of new data on early agricultural societies in southern Spain and Portugal to a wide English speaking audience that does not have access to the local literature or cannot read it in its original languages. Secondly it will provide a case study of the critical study of change in early agricultural societies, which will be of value to scholars working in other regions of the Mediterranean and beyond. Thirdly it will highlight the extent to which social inequalities can be recognised in the material evidence of such societies as seen in the archaeological record. Fourthly it will open up a wide debate about the nature of early state societies and raise critical problems for the normal definition of such societies in the English speaking world. Lastly it will help the process of interaction and debate between Spanish and Portuguese archaeologists, and their counterparts studying early agricultural societies and social change in the English speaking world.