Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Craft Production and the Development of Complex Societies in Ancient China

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 1-18

3. Sources of Data on Social and Economic Change during the Late Neolithic Period and Early Bronze Age

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 19-46

4. Food, Craft Production, and Social Inequality

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 47-65

5. The Gift of Food in Ancient China

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 67-87

6. The Dawenkou and Yangshao Periods

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 89-145

7. The Longshan Period

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 147-199

8. The Early Bronze Age

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 201-239

9. Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China

   • Anne P. Underhill

   Pages 241-258

10. Back Matter

    Pages 259-346

    PDF

This book offers an anthropological analysis of how craft production changed in relation to the development of complex societies in northern China. It focuses on the production and use of food containers-pottery and bronze vessels-during the late prehistoric and early historic periods. A major theme is how production and use of prestige vessels changed in relation to increase in degree of social inequality. The research and writing of this book took place intermittently over a period of several years. When I first outlined the book in 1994, I planned to offer a more limited and descriptive account of social change during the late prehistoric period. In considering the human desire to display status with prestige goods, my initial approach emphasized how the case of northern China was similar to other areas of the world. I began to realize that in order to adequately explain how and why craft production changed in ancient China, it was crucial to consider the belief systems that motivated produc­ tion and use of food containers. Similarly, a striking characteristic of ancient China that I needed to include in the analysis was the preponderance of food containers, rather than other goods, that were buried with the deceased. I decided to investigate the social and ritual uses of food, bever­ ages, and containers during more than one period of Chinese history. Some strong patterns could have emerged during the late prehistoric period.

• Bronze Age
• China
• Neolithic
• social change

"Underhill's monograph is the first diachronic archaeological study of this region from the anthropological perspective. This work will be of interest to students in Chinese archaeology,m as well as to archaeologists studying the rise of social complexity in other parts of the world."
(Journal of Anthrolopological Research, 59 (2003)

"...in this book, Anne Underhill has undertaken a massive investigation of the textual and archaeological evidence for changes in craft production in relation to the development of complex society between 4000 and 1200 B.C. in northern China. Probably the most meticulously systematic argument in the Chinese archaeological literature, where a rich array of Chinese historical and archaeological as well as worldwide ethnographical data are marshaled in its support."
(Gina L. Barnes, Asian Perspectives, 43:1)

• The Field Museum, Chicago, USA

  Anne P. Underhill

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