The emergence of complex society in northeast China from the fourth to the first millennia B.C.: A perspective from Chifeng area in Inner Mongolia

The emergence of socio-political complexity in China is traditionally described as initiated in the Yellow River Basin and spread to the 'periphery' by way of political expansion and cultural diffusion. Our work challenges this model in two complementary ways. First, by focusing on the Chifeng area we address local processes which led to the development of social complexity. Second, by analyzing concrete data we address the nature and impact of interaction.;A settlement study we conducted in the Chifeng area of southeastern Inner Mongolia provides the main data used to address those issues. Published and unpublished reports on archaeological work conducted by Chinese archaeologists are used to supplement the data generated by our field survey.;Our data suggest that in the incipient socio-political hierarchy of the Hongshan period (c. 3500-2500 B.C.), status was exclusively tied to public ceremonial activity. During the Lower Xiajiadian period (c. 2000-1600 B.C) a three tiered central place settlement pattern points to increased socio-political stratification. However, the power of the elite was still tied to their public functions such as coordinators of the construction of the large defence systems found at many sites. By the Upper Xiajiadian period (c. 1100-600 B.C.) a more mobile lifeway resulted in decreased investment in permanent structures. However, based on burial data, we argue against previous reconstructions which describe it as a period of declining socio-political complexity. This data suggests a society in which political power was personally associated with the paramount leaders.;In diachronic terms we observe a transition from 'group-oriented' to 'individualizing' societies. We maintain that this was a significant part of the socio-political process. However, comparison between the Lower and Upper Xiajiadian societies demonstrates that a more individualized system is not necessarily more complex. It indicates that those ideological changes can be associated with 'horizontal' rather than 'vertical' shifts.;We observe two distinct patterns of interregional interaction. During the Lower Xiajiadian period the region was occupied by polities which attained comparable levels of socio-political organization with the contacts among them confined mainly to down-the-line exchange networks. No evidence was found for conscious attempts by political leaders to control or boost the interaction. In contrast, the regional political landscape of the Upper Xiajiadian period agrees much better with the center-periphery model. At this time, state level polities had emerged in the Yellow and Yangzi River Basins, while the northern corridor was still inhabited by chiefdom level societies. However, we possess no data to support the world-system model. Rather than being exploited by the core and passively received its influence, the Upper Xiajiadian polities seem to have been active players taking advantage of the interaction.