From Colonization to Increasing Social Complexity

Abstract

Abstract The many facets of prehistoric interaction are explored, from providing essential resources for small founding groups to maintaining social, economic, and political alliances to establishing and furthering prestige and status to island and coastal communities. The authors debunk the “myth of isolation” and provide some parameters for defining, describing, and analyzing interaction networks. They argue that the changing economic and social configurations of prehistoric interaction networks can be best addressed through multi-disciplinary pursuits involving a range of specialists, especially outside of archaeology. The pallet of technical possibilities is almost endless for defining island and coastal interaction networks, and interpreting the spatial and temporal characteristics of interaction spheres will take an equally sophisticated theoretical perspective for teasing out the importance of this “social glue.”