State and Society - Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and Political Centralization (Paperback, New edition)

The traditional Eurocentric view of state formation and the rise of civilization is vigorously challenged in this broad-ranging and innovative book. Bringing archaeological research into contact with the work of ethno-historians and anthropologists, and by constantly challenging trends in interpretation, State and Society analyzes the dynamics of political centralization, and resistance to it, in a diverse range of historical and geographical contexts.
Contributions on the impact of European colonialism and modern Third World state formation help to develop a more complete picture of human resistance and social inequalities - a picture which serves to illuminate the nature of the West's own experience.