Research Catalog
The power of ritual in prehistory : secret societies and origins of social complexity
- Title
- The power of ritual in prehistory : secret societies and origins of social complexity / Brian Hayden, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.
- Author
- Hayden, Brian
- Publication
- Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFF 19-340 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- xii, 398 pages : illustrations, maps; 26 cm
- Summary
- The Power of Ritual in Prehistory' is the first book in nearly a century to deal with traditional secret societies from a comparative perspective and the first from an archaeological viewpoint. Providing a clear definition, as well as the material signatures, of ethnographic secret societies, Brian Hayden demonstrates how they worked, what motivated their organizers, and what tactics they used to obtain what they wanted. He shows that far from working for the welfare of their communities, traditional secret societies emerged as predatory organizations operated for the benefit of their own members. Moreover, and contrary to the prevailing ideas that prehistoric rituals were used to integrate communities, Hayden demonstrates how traditional secret societies created divisiveness and inequalities. They were one of the key tools for increasing political control leading to chiefdoms, states, and world religions. Hayden's conclusions will be eye-opening, not only for archaeologists, but also for anthropologists, political scientists, and scholars of religion.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-396) and index.
- Contents
- The secret -- The new world -- The complex hunter/gatherers of the American Northwest -- California -- The American Southwest and Mesoamerica -- Plains secret societies -- The eastern woodlands and others -- The old world -- Oceania -- Chiefdoms in central Africa -- West Africa -- Implications for prehistory -- Archaeological applications.
- Call Number
- JFF 19-340
- ISBN
- 9781108426398
- 1108426395
- LCCN
- 2018014865
- OCLC
- 1032356920
- Author
- Hayden, Brian, author.
- Title
- The power of ritual in prehistory : secret societies and origins of social complexity / Brian Hayden, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.
- Publisher
- Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-396) and index.
- Other Form:
- ebook version : 9781108606042
- Research Call Number
- JFF 19-340