LINGJIATAN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN THE YUXI VALLEY, CHINA: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The Lingjiatan site with a plethora of exquisite jades and public works in the Yuxi River valley of Anhui, China has been suggested as a ritual and ceremonial center of the middle Neolithic (c. 7000-5000 BP) Chaohu region. Based on an extremely fine-grained regional-scale complete-coverage survey covering an area of 400 km2 revolving around the Lingjiatan site, this dissertation documents patterns of social organization in this region from the middle Neolithic to historical Zhou (c. 5700-2500 BP). More specifically, this research reconstructs the trajectory of social changes and the nature and population of communities at local and supra-local scales, and examines the social differentiation in the Lingjiatan households and communities. Building on these analyses, this dissertation research also compares Lingjiatan with Hongshan society, another visible example of “jade culture” in middle Neolithic China, to explore the factors leading to variations or similarities of the trajectories and activities in the formation of larger-scale and more complex societies. Comparative analysis focuses on different dimensions of social complexity, including ceremonial architecture complexes, developmental trajectories, demographic scale, and nature and organization of activities in local and supra-local communities. Results of this analysis indicate that rather than focusing on larger-scale political integration, economic power and wealth differentiation, elites of both societies accomplished their domination through ritual authority. The Lingjiatan society in the Yuxi region and Hongshan society in the Upper Daling region showed a very similar pathway to develop larger-scale complex societies. Both regions were characterized by ceremonial structures and elaborate burials with symbolic jade artifacts. Both regions emerged in a context of substantial population growth and were on the same track toward demographic growth and formation of supra-local communities. Both regions were characterized by numerous, relatively autonomous supra-local communities and lacked political integration at the larger regional scale. Both regions organized their community activities around strong ritual differentiation and modest prestige differentiation.