The social context of specialized production: Reorganization of household craft and food economies in an early Near Eastern state.

Abstract

As Old and New World state societies emerged, households shifted from relative economic autonomy toward an increasing reliance on specialists. However, we lack two sets of information critical to understanding why specialization increased with political centralization: (1) the proportion of households that reorganized their economies; and (2) the aspects of the economy that were transformed. To address these questions, a series of mid-late third millennium B.C. non-elite houses were excavated at the town of Kurban Hoyuk, southeast Turkey. The settlement dates to a period of state development throughout northern Mesopotamia. Analyses of excavated ceramics, chipped stone, objects, and animal bones were conducted to evaluate two alternative hypotheses concerning the relationships among political centralization and household economic specialization: (1) households turned to specialized food and craft production as a more efficient means of producing surpluses for emergent political elites; or (2) changes in production stemmed from the increasing importance of craft goods in the information systems of state societies. Results of this analysis shows that most households became increasingly reliant on specialists as political centralization increased. However, only a selective aspect of household economies was transformed: the production of display goods (serving vessels and perhaps textiles). Goods of low social visibility (chipped stone tools and cooking pots) continued to be produced by non-specialists. Food production also remained a household activity for centuries following state emergence. The finding that specialization focused on social display goods suggests that increased sociopolitical scale and complexity led to critical changes in how goods were valued and used. Three factors appear to have contributed to increasing specialization: (1) the need for highly standarized goods to signify status in societies characterized by greater socioeconomic diversity, scale and increased anonymity; (2) the increased importance of goods in signifying rank and specialized production as a means of restricting access to badges or rank; and (3) emulation of prestige markers by the non-elite. This study shows why understanding the economic and social changes connected with state emergence must involve not only the study of public buildings and regional centers, but also non-elite households at small communities.