Political competition and social transformation: The development of residence, residential ward, and community in the prehistoric Taegongni of southwestern Korea.

Abstract

This thesis involves the use of archaeological data to investigate the evolution of sociopolitical complexity in the southwestern Korean societies between 500 BC and 300 AD. Guided by an action-centered theoretical perspective, it attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the social process of how social competition between village segments for people and their resources led to the emergence of social inequality in prehistoric Korean societies. The Taegongni settlement site, located in southwestern Korea, revealed a total of 162 residential features, 54 small pits, and many functionally-specific structures, including storage buildings and kilns. Based on multidimensional-scaling procedures, five new Taegongni subphases were proposed. Based on the analysis of both synchronic and diachronic variation in each time period, it is found that there was constant social competition led by aspiring group leaders: each phase is clearly partitioned into several major village segments. Furthermore, the site shows a gradual increase in sector size and complexity through time. The site began as small nucleated segments in Phase I, then became larger in Phase II, and finally evolved into a more complex community in Phase III in terms of size and configuration of community sectors. Although social differentiation tended to gradually increase throughout Phase III, this differentiation was not enough to suggest that hereditary rank societies had emerged. During Phase IV, the social landscape changed dramatically as Taegongni grew to become a major socio-political center. Social differentiation within and between village segments seems to have been great. The largest sector, R, covers upwards of 64 m in diameter and contains more than 37 buildings. It may have served as the sociopolitical focus in the community and probably controlled several other sectors, which were also internally ranked. The final Phase V community maintained a similar social organization and complexity with the preceding Phase IV. In short, this research strongly suggests that there were constant competition between residential sectors for people and their resources and that this social competition was the propelling force for social transformation for the rise of social inequality in southwestern Korea.