From regimes to revolutions: technology and technique at the bronze age tell at Szazhalombatta, Hungary

Sofaer, Joanna (2012) From regimes to revolutions: technology and technique at the bronze age tell at Szazhalombatta, Hungary. In, Hartley, C, Yazicioglu, B and Smith, A (eds.) Regimes and Revolutions: The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: ON REVOLUTIONS AND REGIMES The notion of “revolution” in archaeology is typically understood in terms of major social transformations underpinned by technological changes. This idea owes a particular debt to Vere Gordon Childe, who created large-scale narratives using the notion of revolution to explore shifts from one level of material and social development to another in dramatic terms. Thus Childe famously identified a Neolithic Revolution and an Urban Revolution, both of which he saw as periods of sudden upheaval and social rearrangement (Childe 1936). To Childe, there was a clear correlation between social organization and economic development (Childe 1944, 1951). This view of social change accorded technology an external role as part of the means and forces of production, which Childe saw as fundamental to understanding the formation of prehistoric Europe. In other words, social organization was not assigned any internal dynamics but presented as dependent on outside forces, with technology having a determining role as the arbiter of social change (Sofaer and Sørensen in press). The move over recent decades toward an emphasis on the internal dynamics of societies, including discussions of agency and social power, has implicitly rejected this view. However, this reaction has, in the main, consisted of a shift in thematic interest rather than a critical reexamination of the relationship between technology and society (Sofaer and Sørensen in press). Thus, although the Childean view of prehistory has in general been rejected, many of Childe’s underlying assumptions regarding the relationship between society and technology remain influential (Sofaer and Sørensen in press).

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Contributors

Author: Joanna Sofaer

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