Celtic Chiefdom Celtic State.

Celtic Chiefdom Celtic State. Celtic chiefdom Celtic state, a collection of papers edited by Arnold& Gibson, deals with state formation and social complexity, from asocial evolutionary perspective. The book 'covers both prehistoricand historic cultures from the early Iron Age Celtic peoples ofcontinental Europe (800-400 bc) to the 18th-century Scottish clansdefeated by the English at the Battle of Culladen in 1746'. Theidea of an ethnological eth��nol��o��gy?n.1. The science that analyzes and compares human cultures, as in social structure, language, religion, and technology; cultural anthropology.2. approach to Celtic studies Celtic Studies is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to a Celtic people. This ranges from archaeology to history, the focus lying on the study of the various Celtic languages, living and extinct. , using the writtensources, is pursued with an aim of integrating this source of evidencewith the archaeological. Another aim is to promote a dialogue betweenisolated national schools and segregated disciplines. The editing,formatting and illustrations are of a high quality, making this avisually attractive book.Why is the mid 1990s an appropriate time for the publication, withinthe 'New Directions in Archaeology' series, of a volume onsocial evolution in 'Celtic' Europe? In one sense, how couldthere be new directions for such an archaeology? Whilst there are someinteresting papers and ideas within the book, the overall impressiongiven is one of the re-use of a framework grown old, and this is quitethe reverse of the newness one might infer from its presentation. It isrevealing, I think, that less than a quarter of the references cited byArnold & Gibson, in their introductory chapter, were written duringthe last 19 years; most were current in the late 1960s and '70s. Isthis gradual change and 'progress' or the attemptedre-invigoration of a tired tradition?Implicit in Adj. 1. implicit in - in the nature of something though not readily apparent; "shortcomings inherent in our approach"; "an underlying meaning"underlying, inherent the naming of the volume is a 'discourse ofpower' (Shore 1996; Webster in Hill & Cumberpatch 1995): theact of naming being a way in which 'Celtic' chiefdoms andstates in 'Europe' becomes associated, and to an extentappropriated by the volume editors and Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). , atleast for the next few years. Yet this all-encompassing cloak is tightlyfastened, since it also associates stages of evolutionary complexity anda generalized notion of Celticity with the writing of the contributors.Some clearly feel stifled and uncomfortable with such a unifyingstructure (Cellis, Crumley, Haselgrove). In their introductory piece,the editors never question the existence of Celts as peoples; and theirassociation of Celtic languages with material culture, socialorganization and art, with little justification for this stance, eitherbetrays a complete lack of awareness, or a denial of a, by now,well-developed critique of Celticism and Celtic Society (Champion 1987;Cellis 1994; Fitzpatrick 1991; 1996; Hill 1989; 1993; Merriman 1987;Renfrew 1996). Most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"above all, most especially , the Celts, or Keltoi, should be seen asRoman and Greek names for the 'Other': the Celts were'imagined' then, as they are being imagined today.The postulated ethnological approach, using the literary sources, isflawed by its lack of consideration of the historical and culturalcontexts in which particular sources were written. Thus classicalgeographers are accepted uniformly and equally alongside Medieval Irishand Welsh writings, under the guise of a common Celticity (Patterson). Afurther problem, which repeatedly surfaces in subsequent papers (e.g.Brun, Gibson, Wells), is that text sources are read as reflections ofpast societies, rather than being seen as written to influence anaudience, for very particular reasons, and in relation to their ownculturally specific conceptual frameworks. A notable exception is aninteresting paper by Dunham, who employs a critical and contextualapproach with reference to Caesar's De Bello Gallico. He shows howCaesar, writing on Gallic social structures, was strongly influenced bythe perception, and terminology, of a society which he knew and belongedto: a late Republican Roman one.In a thought-provoking paper, Crumley deconstructs the expectation ofcivil societies as being a priori a prioriIn epistemology, knowledge that is independent of all particular experiences, as opposed to a posteriori (or empirical) knowledge, which derives from experience. urban. With relation to Gaul, thenotion of heterarchy is forwarded: 'a system in which elements areunranked relative to one another or ranked in a variety of waysdepending on conditions'. This sees counterpoised power assituationally negotiated, and from widely dispersed locations across thelandscape, rather than necessarily being focussed at the centres(oppida). It is argued that this form of organization is inherently noless 'complex' than hierarchical states. Both Crumley andDodgshon look to diverse, and sometimes harsh, landscapes as animportant influence on regional variation in social organization andideology.Dietler shows a subtle awareness of the ideological manipulation ofmaterial culture in a dynamic comparative analysis of the early Iron Ageof the West Halstatt Zone with the lower Rhone Basin. Indeed, he is theonly contributor in the book to assess, and move forward from, theMediterranean prestige goods dependency model articulated byFrankenstein & Rowlands (1978). The difference between the itemsimported into the two regions can, at least partly, be interpreted interms of regional, and internal, differences in strategies of materialculture signification SIGNIFICATION, French law. The notice given of a decree, sentence or other judicial act. . Similarly, Arnold makes some interesting pointsabout the symbolism of monuments (e.g. the significance of prehistorictomb robbing, and the role of Viereckschanzen).Collis and Haselgrove, in separate papers, confront the visibility,speed and nature of changing social conditions which led to thedevelopment of oppida. Haselgrove challenges the correlation of oppidaas urban and reflective of state levels of organization, seeing thesituation in Gaul and Britain more commensurate with unstable chiefdomlevels of organization. He argues that the changes of the late Iron Agemay have been less qualitative than has previously been argued. Romanimperialism may have prolonged, and made more visible, crises, whichwere nevertheless also inherent in the internal, and cyclical, logic ofchiefdom development. Collis argues for the appearance of oppida asbeing revolutionary, rather than evolutionary: most were rapidly builton new sites (a view which Hasalgrove corroborates). During thepreceding period of the middle La Tene La T��ne?adj.Of or relating to a late Iron Age Celtic civilization dating from the fifth to the first century b.c. , he sees potential for theexistence of states without urban centres, citing rural sanctuaries, andtheir large scale of votive vo��tive?adj.1. Given or dedicated in fulfillment of a vow or pledge: a votive offering.2. deposition, as possible evidence for complexsocial organization.Fischer's paper on the early Celts of west-central Europe isdensely uninspiring uninspiringAdjectivenot likely to make people interested or excitedAdj. 1. uninspiring - depressing to the spirit; "a villa of uninspiring design"inspiring - stimulating or exalting to the spirit , whilst the contributions of Brun and Gibson exhibitthe worst tendencies of an outmoded framework of thought. The boldnesswith which Brun carves up Europe into cultural complexes is staggeringin its level of abstraction The level of complexity by which a system is viewed. The higher the level, the less detail. The lower the level, the more detail. The highest level of abstraction is the single system itself. and simplification. His equally simplifiedand largely hypothesized account of developments from the Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the ,until the end of the Iron Age, is stale and slavish slav��ish?adj.1. Of or characteristic of a slave or slavery; servile: Her slavish devotion to her job ruled her life.2. to evolutionaryprocess. Gibson's study of social development in early Medievalsouthern Ireland is an evolutionary superstructure of largelyundemonstrated assumptions (at least in this paper), which engages onlyvery superficially with the materiality of this archaeology.To be fair to the contributors, in a number of papers, one can detecta toning-down of many of the crude generalizations which previous worksof a social evolutionary kind have espoused. There is a trend towards amore regional approach, which accepts a measure of cultural diversity insocial development (Arnold, Arnold & Gibson, Collis, Crumley,Dietier, Haselgrove). Devolution is accepted as a concept by Brun andDodgshon, whilst Haselgrove points to the cyclical patterns ofexpansion, crisis and contraction of chiefdoms. One-to-one correlationsof particular settlement patterns with specific levels ofsocio-political organization are debunked. No longer is it necessary forelites to reside in, and be buried near, oppida or hillforts (Arnold,Buchsenschutz, Collis, Wells). Indeed, many of the assumptions ofcentral place theory are called into question in the light of recentarchaeological findings. The uses to which hillforts and oppida were putmay have been varied (Buchsenschutz, Collis), and the interiors ofoppida were frequently not filled by dense occupation (Collis,Haselgrove, Wells). Craft products of high quality in manufacture werenot solely made and used in oppida (Wells).Different Iron Ages: studies on the Iron Age in temperate Europe,edited by Hill & Cumberpatch, offers contributions on a range ofdifferent perspectives and approaches to the study of La Tene societiesof temperate Europe. The majority of papers address one or more of threeinter-related issues: the organization of exchange and production, thefunction of oppida, hillforts and central places and the nature of IronAge social organization. The geographical coverage is wide, with paperson Scandinavian, Central European as well as Western European material.Occasional spelling errors are to be found, and the quality ofphotocopied illustrations and plans is in places poor.Unlike the preceding book, this choice of title does not overtly seekto prescribe an approach to the archaeology. On a general level, all ofthe contributions can be easily included, by virtue of coveringdifferent material from different perspectives. The choice of differenthowever may be intended to invoke a past as different to the present,and also a methodology which defines societal identity by contrasts withother regions of evidence (Hill 1993). Likewise, in their introduction,Cumberpatch and Hill guide the reader through the salient themes andapproaches of the papers without offering their own programmaticperspectives.A strength of this volume, within the BAR International series, isthe new presentation of introductory reviews of recent work on regionswhich are rarely linguistically accessible to English speakers (van denBroeke, Cumberpatch, Gebhard, Hjorungdal, Wells). Half of the 14 papersshow a high standard of theoretical awareness and critical application,and therefore this volume is also a vehicle for a number of strong andno doubt frequently to-be-cited articles. Many of these papers werewritten from a perspective of post-processualism, making this book anucleus for the publication of new ideas, often based around recentlycompleted doctoral research (Cumberpatch, Ferrell, Hill, Webster).Cumberpatch illustrates well how research on production and exchangeis integral to the examination of social organization, with relation tothe late Iron Age of Bohemia and Moravia. The paper plays down the ideathat the construction of oppida represents a change in scale ororganization of craft or agricultural production: this is an importantpaper contributing significantly to a current rethinking of their role(e.g. Woolf 1993). The role of Mediterranean imports as motors to aprestige good dependency model is shown to be unrealistic, by virtue ofthe very small numbers of items concerned. This is the better of his twopapers; the other, dealing with Slovakian, Southern Poland andTrans-Danubian Hungary is a more descriptive introduction to thematerial. A useful concise account of recent work on the oppida atManching, by Gebhard, complements the coverage of those in Bohemia andMoravia. Wells' coverage of the German La Tene is thorough and wellinformed.Continuing with the theme of production and exchange, van den Broekepresents an innovative material study on sea-salt trade in the LowerRhine Lower RhineThe portion of the Rhine River between Bonn, Germany, and the North Sea. area. He argues that the scale of activity was small here,contrary to previous research which has asserted that it played acrucial role in elite formation in the Low Countries. Salt-containingpottery vessels were made near the coast and deposited in smallproportions on inland settlements. Concentrations of these containerswithin localized intra-settlement contexts are interpreted as particularuse of salt for meat-preservation and cheese-making.A number of weaker papers are included in the volume. Hamiltonexamines the archaeological material from seven sites around Trier,looking for evidence of the Roman Conquest. Unsurprisingly, she findslittle, and offers little new insight. Parzinger writes in a dense,largely culture-historical style about the development of early La Teneculture in two different zones of Central Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. In addition, Northern, Southern and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe. . His knowledge ofdecorative metalwork is clearly impressive, yet at times, discussionseems overly concerned with defining precise chronologies in order toanswer 'which came first?' questions. This seems to miss thepoint that items may have remained in circulation for different lengthsof time prior to their deposition, and for a variety of reasons. BothKohler and Brun treat archaeology from the stand-point of the externalscientist, using language such as 'thermodynamic machines','antagonistic feedbacks' and 'auto-oscillating' inthe study of human behaviour. Peoples of the Iron Age are thus dupedautomata automata - automaton following preordained paths, and denied an active role inhistory. Brun offers a systemic and evolutionary approach In computer science, an evolutionary approach is an acquisition strategy that defines, develops, produces or acquires, and fields an initial hardware or software increment (or block) of operational capability. in a study ofsocial 'complexification' and oppida in France, whilst Kohlerattempts to model population oscillations at hillforts in CentralGermany. His paper can be criticized for its superficial treatment ofarchaeological evidence, and for relying upon hugely problematicpopulation estimates (particularly given the wide variation in intensityof occupation on many settlements).Two strong papers emphasize the central role of spatial organizationin the reproduction of society. Ferrell, writing on north easternEngland, demonstrates a useful statistical method of inter-site analysisaimed at understanding better the structuring of settlements, in fourdifferent study regions, in relation to each other. The results suggestthe existence of different social formations: in eastern and lowlandCounty Durham “Durham county” redirects here. For other uses, see Durham County.County Durham is a county in north-east England. It can be used to refer to 4 different entities: the historic County of Durham the administrative county of Durham a hierarchical system, and in three parts of uplandNorthumberland a non-hierarchical system. The evidence is furtherinterpreted in terms of Marxist social relations of production Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. Beyond examining specific cases, Marx never defined the general concept exactly. , namelyan Asiatic Mode of Production In the theory of historical materialism, the term Asiatic mode of production describes a widespread pre-Capitalist mode of production, in which irrigation agriculture plays an important role in society. Oriental despotism is considered to arise out of this mode of production. in upland areas and a Germanic Mode ofProduction in the lowland region. Hingley offers a critique ofcore-periphery and diffusionist models as they have related in the pastto Scottish archaeology. He interprets the significance of theelaboration of the substantial roundhouses of Atlantic Scotland, makingintriguing links between the environment and ideology. The symbolism ofthe re-use of Neolithic monuments and material culture by Iron Agepeople is also discussed; an important theme for future research.Webster's critical approach to the Classical texts hasfundamental implications for the study of Iron Age religion. Introducingthe concept of interpretatio, she argues that it constitutes a colonialdiscourse with unequal power structures implicit. This fascinating studyconsiders the power involved in naming, looking in particular at thename-pairing of Roman and Celtic deities in Britain. Hjorungdal, in agender-critical approach, questions the concept of chiefdom, on thebasis of its androcentric an��dro��cen��tric?adj.Centered or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women: an androcentric view of history; an androcentric health-care system. assumptions, and gives an engenderedinterpretation of the archaeology of Sunnmore in Western Norway.Studying the early and middle Iron Age of Wessex, Hill asks whetherchiefdoms ever existed here. He gives a well-thought-out critique ofCunliffe's interpretation of hillforts and society, showing howsuch notions of redistributive centres and elite residence locations arefound wanting. More influentially, he constructs an alternativeapproach, by harnessing a Marxist Mode of Production with a 'bottomup' contextual approach. In this view of society, following theGermanic Mode of Production, there are atomized relations in whichindividual households controlled their own means of production Means Of Production is a compilation of Aim's early 12" and EP releases, recorded between 1995 and 1998. Track listing"Loop Dreams" – 5:30 "Diggin' Dizzy" – 5:33 "Let the Funk Ride" – 5:11 "Original Stuntmaster" – 6:33 . The roleof hillforts is reconsidered and argued to be one of 'Notfarmsteads', whilst the reasons for the existence of hillforts insome regions, but not in others, are considered to be more social thandefensive. This paper will, over the next few years, be a stimulus tofurther rethinking of the character of Iron Age societies in Europe, butit should not be seen as representing an end point in thought. Theapproach is limited by the 'farmstead'/'notfarmstead' dichotomy, which continues to visualize settlements as'dots on the map', rather than seeing them as articulatingwith each other within a complex landscape. The challenge will be toassess Hill's innovative ideas, against a more complete view of thelandscape, which was lived in and moved through, and also containingmany other kinds of non-hillfort and non-farm-stead locales.It is remarkable that two such different outlooks on the Iron Ages ofEurope have been written at the same time. The social evolutionaryperspectives of Celtic chiefdom Celtic state struggle to create newavenues of research, and this may be because the totality of thetheoretical structure has, in essence, been resolved and cannot changeenough. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently the approach has already provided 'astraight jacket which channels modes of thought and interpretation'(Collis 1994). Post-processual approaches, common in Different IronAges, by contrast, are still throwing forward different ideas. These arebeginning to be applied, through detailed engagements with materialremains. They recognize that the interpretation of archaeologicalmaterial is essentially problematic. Choosing between Celtic chiefdomCeltic state and Different Iron Ages, the latter book is the morehonest, for now at least.ReferencesCHAMPION, T.C. 1987. The European Iron Age: assessing the state ofthe art, Scottish Archaeological Review 4: 98-107.COLLIS, J. 1994. The Iron Age, in B. Vyner (ed.), Building on thepast: papers celebrating 150 years of the Royal ArchaeologicalInstitute The Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is a learned society, established in 1844, primarily devoted to the publication of the Archaeological Journal, a production of archaeological news that has been in print since 1844. : 123-48. London: The Royal Archaeological Institute.FITZPATRICK, A.F. 1991. 'Celtic (Iron Age) Religion' -traditional and timeless?, Scottish Archaeological Review 8: 123-8.1996. 'Celtic' Iron Age Europe: the theoretical basis, inGraves-Brown et al. (ed.): 238-55.FRANKENSTEIN, S. & M.J. ROWLANDS, 1978. The internal structureand regional context of early Iron Age society in southwest Germany,Institute of Archaeology The Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of University College London (UCL), in the United Kingdom. The Institute is located in a separate building at the north end of Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. Bulletin 15: 73-112.GRAVES-BROWN, P., S. JONES & C. GAMBLE (ed.). 1996, Culturalidentity and archaeology: the construction of European communities.London: Routledge.HILL, J.D. 1989. Re-thinking the Iron Age, Scottish ArchaeologicalReview 6: 16-24.1993. Can we recognise a different European past? A contrastivearchaeology of Later Prehistoric settlements in Southern England,Journal of European Archaeology 1: 57-75.MERRIMAN, N. 1987. Value and motivation in prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to : The evidencefor 'Celtic' spirit, in I. Hodder (ed.), The archaeology ofcontextual meanings: 111-16. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.RENFREW, C. 1996. Prehistory and the identity of Europe, or,don't let's be beastly beast��ly?adj. beast��li��er, beast��li��est1. Of or resembling a beast; bestial.2. Very disagreeable; unpleasant.adv. Chiefly BritishTo an extreme degree; very. to the Hungarians, in Graves-Brown etal. (ed.): 125-37.SHORE, C. 1996. Imagining the new Europe New Europe is a rhetorical term used by conservative political analysts in the United States to describe European post-Communist era countries."New European" countries were originally distinguished by their governments' support of the 2003 war in Iraq, as opposed to an "Old : identity and heritage inEuropean Community discourse, in Graves-Brown et al. (ed.): 96-115.WEBSTER, J. 1995. Translation and subjection: interpretation and theCeltic Gods, in Hill & Cumberpatch (ed.): 175-83.WOOLF, G. 1993. Rethinking the oppida, Oxford Journal of Archaeology12: 223-34.