Study Of Social Complexity Of Hongshan Culture

The origin of Chinese prehistoric civilization has always been an important subject of archaeological research.After the framework of Chinese prehistoric cultural regional system has been established,it is a big work to explore the process of the development of the ancient society in the main cultural areas.The process of ancient social complexity in different region have common features,and they also have their own fetures on the other side.At the lower level,the ancient society in different periods has a stage characteristic in the process of social complicated development in a certain region,and the archaeological culture named by the common cultural characteristics has different duration.The archaeological culture that last for a long time is likely to include the different stages of the process of the social complexity.Therefore,the discovery of the process of the ancient social complex of the individual archaeological culture will help us to understand the change process of the social complexity of our region,and it also will promote the development of the important subject of Chinese civilization.This paper attempts to restore the development process of the ancient society of Hongshan culture,and intends to construct the full text with the horizontal observation and the vertical dynamic change induction.I will sort out and analyze the existing archaeological data,including the regional system survey,settlement,individual site,burials,relics and other materials,to understand the distribution pattern,and on the basis of the different cultural stage to observe the social organization Structure and its evolution,the development of social stratification,the degree of economic inequality,the development of the divine factors and other aspects of the situation.And then observe the qualitative change have happened in what stage of the culture during the social complexity process,and figure out the occurrence of this qualitative change.Through the discussion of the above problems,I will analyses the importance and particularity of the Hongshan culture in the prehistoric northeast region in the process of the origin of Chinese civilization.The main research methods of this paper include environmental archeology,settlement archaeological,burial analysis,cognitive archeology.The study of environmental archeology foucus on the ancient climate fluctuation and geomorphology,hydrology etc.in the distribution area of Hongshan Culture,then to understand the influence of environmental factors on the evolution of industrial economy and settlement group.In the aspect settlement archeology I also will analyze the settlement pattern from different levels:the distribution of the settlement in the macro landscape;the spatial distribution pattern of the individual settlement;the functional differentiation within the basic unit of the settlement.So as to understand the distribution pattern of Hongshan culture,the change of settlement function,the social organization structure,the stratification of social members and the social and economic inequality.The burial analysis mainly includes:the study of the spatial layout of the prehistoric social cemeteries;the grading of the burials through the type,size and structure of the tomb;quantitatively analyzes the quantity and species of the funerary objects,distinguishes their quality and observes the special locality.To study funerary objects is a comprehensive measure of social differentiation.And then to analysis the form of burial reflects the social hierarchy and social organization structure,and the burial background reflects the symbolic and religious elements.This paper also explores the changes of the original religious belief of the culture and how such factors affect the process of social complexity by observing the altar,sacrificial pits,special sacrifices,painted pottery,jade,various statues and so on.According to the purpose of the dissertation writing,the full text is divided into ten parts.Part 1:Introduction.The reasons for choose this topic are current Chinese prehistoric archeology research hot spots and the importance and specificity of Hongshan culture.According to the characteristics of archaeological discovery and research,the academic history of Hongshan culture is divided into three stages,then introduce the features of each stage.In order to achieve the purpose of research,the main contents include environmental background,settlement pattern,ritual and primitive religion by described in three dimensions of environmental archeology settlement archaeology and cognitive archeology.Part 2:Staging and Chronology.Briefly review the history of Hongshan culture and the research history,define the stage and chronological framework of this paper,and summarize the characteristics of the pottery types of each stage,divide the archaeological materials according to different stages,so as to provide staging and the basis for other aspects of the study,such as ancient environment,settlement and ritual.Part 3:Landscape and Paleoenvironment.Firstly,introduce the geographical background of Hongshan cultural occupation area.Summarize the background of the climatic fluctuation of quaternary paleoenvironment in northern China during Hongshan period on the basis of the results of ancient geology research.Secondly,summarize the features of ancient environment change in the occupation area of Hongshan culture period,then analysis the influence of environmental fluctuation on the Hongshan subsistent economy and settlement pattern.Part 4:the macro-settlement pattern of Hongshan culture.The eight archaeological survey data related to the Hongshan culture were sorted out,and the spatial distribution was divided into three regions.On the basis of this,the paper summarizes the macro-settlement characteristics of Hongshan culture.According to the area of the site and the spatial distribution.I will identify the class of the settlement,and settlement groups.The relationship between the groups in different regions is different from the scale and distribution of the scattered groups,some are obvious controlled relationship,some are more equal;and the distribution of the settlement group is difference.In addition,the number of Hongshan settlement more than the former and the later archaeological culture from the prehistoric cultural development sequence in the northeastern region.Part 5:The micro-settlement pattern of Hongshan culture.The evolution of individual settlement pattern can be divided into early and early middle stage,late meddle stage and late stage.In early and early middle stage,the small and medium sized settlement with trench is more popular,settlement internal function is simple.In late meddle stage,there have a lot of individual settlement materials,and the different characteristics of different regions can be observed.The internal function of the settlement in some areas of this stage is significantly higher than that in the former stage.In late stage,it's hard to get enough information about the settlement structure,and the internal settlement began to appear with the sacrificial or religious relics.This shows that the increase of the settlement function and the social structure are complicated.At the same time,the settlement information of this stage also shows that the core family has more independence of production and consumption.At the level of social relations,the three classes in early and early middle stage change to four classes in late meddle stage and late stage.The basic unit from the expanded family reduced to the core family.Part 6:Hongshan Households Study.As an essential component of the social organization structure,the analysis of the archaeological data of the Hongshan household includes two aspects:one is the change of the production economic activity of the household,and the economic activity of the early household is simple,increasing from mid to late stage.Second,the economic inequality of households is based on the quantitative analysis of the house size and remains.The results show that the difference between early and middle stage is small,but have a big difference with late stage.Comparing the changes of economic activities and the inequality of household wealth in the early and late Hongshan culture,it can be seen that the difference between the early and middle stages is small,and the difference between the early stage and the late stage is large.Part 7:Burial analysis of Hongshan Culture.This chapter focuses on the spatial layout,type division and funerary objects of burial.In the spatial layout,the tombs and residence coexistence in the early and middle stage,but the tombs move to the top of the mountain or the ridge in the late stage.The statistic analysis of the butial type and size shows that the burial of the Hongshan culture from the early to the late stage is a complicated process.Firstly,the form of burial is complex.Secondly,the difference in the size of burial is large.Thirdly,the grave type differentials change from one to seven or eight.The number and types of funerary objects not only reflect the economic wealth of the late society is rich,but also reflect the change of late funeral customs.Part 8:Rituals and Primitive Religions of Hongshan Culture.Classify the ritual relics in different stages,from the macro and micro level then analysis of different size of ritual remians,which indicate the formation of the late Hongshan culture of the religious worship system,and NiuheLiang site is a ritual center and pilgrimage center in the late period.From the time point of view,ritual activities like idol worship are inside of the settlement in early and middle stages.The ritual activities become more and more in late stage and the sacrificial system is complicated.The ancestors not only sacrifice inside of the settlement,but also constuct large-scale constructions in sacred places away from the resident settlement.Part 9:Summarizes the process and characteristics of the social complexity of Hongshan culture,and attempts to explore the causes of the social complexity of Hongshan from the aspects of environment,ideology and economic and technological changes and so on.Part 10:Conclusion.The the process of social complexity of Hongshan culture can be devided into two stages.The first stage is the early Hongshan culture(6500-6000 BP).The development of this stage continued the local archaeological culture inertia.The second stage is middle and late Hongshan culture(6000-5000BP),whether the different size of settlement,social organizational structure,or ideology have shown accelerate development,and highly prosperous cultural scene in the late Hongshan.