R D Drennan
Biographic Data
| ID | 14336 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R D Drennan |
| GIVEN NAMES | R D |
| FAMILY NAME | Drennan |
| SIGNATURE | DRENNAN R D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6405-3476 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 372 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Wetlands and grasslands
Early herders prioritized areas with productive winter vegetation over wetland resources. • Land use change was accompanied by constrained residential mobility and population consolidation. • Intensified local interaction fostered adaptations that came to define Eurasian pastoralism. This paper presents the results of a study that investigates the settlement history of Mongolia’s desert-steppe to understand the role of foragers in the evolution o…
Environmental risk buffering in Chinese Neolithic villages
Pathways from Farmers to States around the Globe
InAgainst the Grain, James Scott has produced an admirably broad and sweeping account of state origins. He takes humans’ first use of fire as his starting point and works his way toward states by way of the transition to settled agricultural life in the Neolithic. The intended audience would seem to be primarily the general public, for whom Scott's goals are ‘condensing the best knowledge we have ... and then suggesting what it implies’ (p. xii).…
Letting the Gini Out of the Bottle
Hongshan households and communities in Neolithic northeastern China
A place of pilgrimage? Niuheliang and its role in Hongshan society
Comparative Analysis of Neolithic Household Artifact Assemblage Data from Northern China
Household refuse is ideally suited for the comparative study of social and economic inequality. Compositional variation revealed by nonmetric multidimensional scaling of artifact assemblage data from multiple households is readily interpreted as evidence for qualitative differences in social prestige, wealth, and productive activities. Different configurations of these variables reflect differences in social structure and the underlying bases of …
Grand challenges for archaeology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans the biological, physical, and social sciences.
Grand Challenges for Archaeology
This article represents a systematic effort to answer the question, What are archaeology's most important scientific challenges? Starting with a crowd-sourced query directed broadly to the professional community of archaeologists, the authors augmented, prioritized, and refined the responses during a two-day workshop focused specifically on this question. The resulting 25 'grand challenges' focus on dynamic cultural processes and the operation of…
Challenges for Comparative Study of Early Complex Societies
Early complex society studies, like anthropology in general, are strongly rooted in comparative analysis. Cultural evolutionists of the mid-nineteenth century (Tylor 1865; Morgan 1877; Spencer 1880–97) relied entirely on comparative ethnography to create speculative accounts of the antecedents of contemporary societies. A century later, Sahlins (Sahlins and Service 1960), Service (1962), Fried (1967), and other scholars did the same without assum…
Degrees and Kinds of Inequality
Chiefdoms and states in the Yuncheng Basin and the Chifeng region
Communities, Settlements, Sites, and Surveys
The study of developing complex societies can fruitfully focus on the human interactions that define communities, which have always been at the heart of settlement pattern research. Yet little attention has been paid to how communities of varying scales can actually be identified in archaeological survey data. Most often sites have simply been assumed to correspond to communities, although this practice has been criticized. Methods are offered to…
Early Complex Societies in NE China
The Chifeng region in SE Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was positioned strategically between the early dynastic centers in the agriculturally productive Yellow River basin and the steppe land to its north and west where a pastoral nomadism developed. The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project is focused on this region where no historical documents were written but where excavated mortuary materials suggest the exist…
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
Comparing archaeological settlement systems with rank-size graphs
Early Complex Societies in NE China
Katheryn M. Linduff, Robert D. Drennan, Gideon Shelach, Early Complex Societies in NE China: The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (Spring, 2002 - Summer, 2004), pp. 45-73
How Chiefs Come to Power
1. Introduction: the nature of political power 2. The long-term developments of three chiefdoms: Denmark, Hawaii, and the Andes 3. Sources of economic power 4. Military power: the strategic use of naked force 5. Ideology as a source of power 6. Chiefly power strategies and the emergence of complex political institutions Bibliography Index
Statistics for Archaeologists
in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.The use in this
Betwixt and between in the intermediate area
Chiefdoms in northern South America
What Can Be Learned by Estimating Human Energy Costs
Archaeologists have estimated the human energy costs of various undertakings. Confusion has arisen about the notion of energy “profits”–what must be included in their calculation and what we can learn from such calculations. When it comes to assessing the contribution to sociopolitical hierarchy building of energy profits derived from long-distance transport of food staples, it is the energy expended (both in transport and acquisition of the food…
Regional Dynamics of Chiefdoms in the Valle de la Plata, Colombia
Recent research into settlement patterns in the Valle de la Plata SW Colombia, has provided information on the regional social context of the long-famous statues and tombs of the Alto Magdalena (the "San Agustín Culture"). The region witnessed the development, soon after the time of Christ, of a series of small-scale chiefdoms, each consisting of a few thousand people and centered on the elaborate burial place of its chiefs. These burial places t…
Regional Archaeology on the Valle de la Plata, Colombia
Porters, Pots, and Profit
Grand Challenges for Archaeology
This article represents a systematic effort to answer the question, What are archaeology's most important scientific challenges? Starting with a crowd-sourced query directed broadly to the professional community of archaeologists, the authors augmented, prioritized, and refined the responses during a two-day workshop focused specifically on this question. The resulting 25 'grand challenges' focus on dynamic cultural processes and the operation of…
Long-Distance Transport Costs in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica
Communities, Settlements, Sites, and Surveys
The study of developing complex societies can fruitfully focus on the human interactions that define communities, which have always been at the heart of settlement pattern research. Yet little attention has been paid to how communities of varying scales can actually be identified in archaeological survey data. Most often sites have simply been assumed to correspond to communities, although this practice has been criticized. Methods are offered to…
Long-Distance Movement of Goods in the Mesoamerican Formative and Classic
Many models for the development of complex societies in Mesoamerica have assigned a major role to the economic importance of long-distance trade or exchange. Consideration of the distances between major centers of the Formative and Classic indicates that basic foodstuffs could not have been profitably moved between them. The evidence for the Early and Middle Formative indicates that long-distance movement of any material of which we have evidence…
Comparing archaeological settlement systems with rank-size graphs
Chiefdoms in northern South America
A Refinement of Chronological Seriation Using Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling
A method of chronological seriation and a system of collecting data for it were devised to cope with certain practical and theoretical inadequacies of other methods. The method and collecting system are described in the context of solving problems encountered in the course of a particular archaeological study. It is believed that the method described here will be of use to others. Finally, some implications of this kind of seriation for the way i…
The Economic Systems of Ancient Oaxaca
Archaeological data from a regional settlement pattern survey of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are used to monitor how scarce goods and resources were allocated to members of society through eight phases from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1520. The goal is to determine how distinct historical social structures performed economically in terms of the goods and resources recoverable archaeologically. Measures utilized include land use and settlement characterist…
Early Complex Societies in NE China
The Chifeng region in SE Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was positioned strategically between the early dynastic centers in the agriculturally productive Yellow River basin and the steppe land to its north and west where a pastoral nomadism developed. The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project is focused on this region where no historical documents were written but where excavated mortuary materials suggest the exist…
Betwixt and between in the intermediate area
Porters, Pots, and Profit
A place of pilgrimage? Niuheliang and its role in Hongshan society
Environmental risk buffering in Chinese Neolithic villages
Comparative Analysis of Neolithic Household Artifact Assemblage Data from Northern China
Household refuse is ideally suited for the comparative study of social and economic inequality. Compositional variation revealed by nonmetric multidimensional scaling of artifact assemblage data from multiple households is readily interpreted as evidence for qualitative differences in social prestige, wealth, and productive activities. Different configurations of these variables reflect differences in social structure and the underlying bases of …
Early Complex Societies in NE China
Katheryn M. Linduff, Robert D. Drennan, Gideon Shelach, Early Complex Societies in NE China: The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (Spring, 2002 - Summer, 2004), pp. 45-73
Regional Dynamics of Chiefdoms in the Valle de la Plata, Colombia
Recent research into settlement patterns in the Valle de la Plata SW Colombia, has provided information on the regional social context of the long-famous statues and tombs of the Alto Magdalena (the "San Agustín Culture"). The region witnessed the development, soon after the time of Christ, of a series of small-scale chiefdoms, each consisting of a few thousand people and centered on the elaborate burial place of its chiefs. These burial places t…
What Can Be Learned by Estimating Human Energy Costs
Archaeologists have estimated the human energy costs of various undertakings. Confusion has arisen about the notion of energy “profits”–what must be included in their calculation and what we can learn from such calculations. When it comes to assessing the contribution to sociopolitical hierarchy building of energy profits derived from long-distance transport of food staples, it is the energy expended (both in transport and acquisition of the food…
Statistics for Archaeologists
in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.The use in this
A Refinement of Chronological Seriation Using Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling
A method of chronological seriation and a system of collecting data for it were devised to cope with certain practical and theoretical inadequacies of other methods. The method and collecting system are described in the context of solving problems encountered in the course of a particular archaeological study. It is believed that the method described here will be of use to others. Finally, some implications of this kind of seriation for the way i…
How to Succeed in Seriation without Really Trying
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The leap of faith
Willey, Gordon R., and Norman Hammond, eds. Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory. Second Cambridge Symposium on Recent Research in Mesoamerican Archaeology, 1976
Monte albán
Richard E. Blanton. Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotee Capital. New York: Academic Press, 1978. 451 pp. $24.50
Archeology
The Economic Systems of Ancient Oaxaca
Archaeological data from a regional settlement pattern survey of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are used to monitor how scarce goods and resources were allocated to members of society through eight phases from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1520. The goal is to determine how distinct historical social structures performed economically in terms of the goods and resources recoverable archaeologically. Measures utilized include land use and settlement characterist…
Long-Distance Movement of Goods in the Mesoamerican Formative and Classic
Many models for the development of complex societies in Mesoamerica have assigned a major role to the economic importance of long-distance trade or exchange. Consideration of the distances between major centers of the Formative and Classic indicates that basic foodstuffs could not have been profitably moved between them. The evidence for the Early and Middle Formative indicates that long-distance movement of any material of which we have evidence…
Long-Distance Transport Costs in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica
Porters, Pots, and Profit
Regional Archaeology on the Valle de la Plata, Colombia
Regional Dynamics of Chiefdoms in the Valle de la Plata, Colombia
Recent research into settlement patterns in the Valle de la Plata SW Colombia, has provided information on the regional social context of the long-famous statues and tombs of the Alto Magdalena (the "San Agustín Culture"). The region witnessed the development, soon after the time of Christ, of a series of small-scale chiefdoms, each consisting of a few thousand people and centered on the elaborate burial place of its chiefs. These burial places t…
What Can Be Learned by Estimating Human Energy Costs
Archaeologists have estimated the human energy costs of various undertakings. Confusion has arisen about the notion of energy “profits”–what must be included in their calculation and what we can learn from such calculations. When it comes to assessing the contribution to sociopolitical hierarchy building of energy profits derived from long-distance transport of food staples, it is the energy expended (both in transport and acquisition of the food…
Chiefdoms in northern South America
Betwixt and between in the intermediate area
Statistics for Archaeologists
in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.The use in this
How Chiefs Come to Power
1. Introduction: the nature of political power 2. The long-term developments of three chiefdoms: Denmark, Hawaii, and the Andes 3. Sources of economic power 4. Military power: the strategic use of naked force 5. Ideology as a source of power 6. Chiefly power strategies and the emergence of complex political institutions Bibliography Index
Early Complex Societies in NE China
Katheryn M. Linduff, Robert D. Drennan, Gideon Shelach, Early Complex Societies in NE China: The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (Spring, 2002 - Summer, 2004), pp. 45-73
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
Comparing archaeological settlement systems with rank-size graphs
Early Complex Societies in NE China
The Chifeng region in SE Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was positioned strategically between the early dynastic centers in the agriculturally productive Yellow River basin and the steppe land to its north and west where a pastoral nomadism developed. The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project is focused on this region where no historical documents were written but where excavated mortuary materials suggest the exist…
Communities, Settlements, Sites, and Surveys
The study of developing complex societies can fruitfully focus on the human interactions that define communities, which have always been at the heart of settlement pattern research. Yet little attention has been paid to how communities of varying scales can actually be identified in archaeological survey data. Most often sites have simply been assumed to correspond to communities, although this practice has been criticized. Methods are offered to…
Degrees and Kinds of Inequality
Chiefdoms and states in the Yuncheng Basin and the Chifeng region
Challenges for Comparative Study of Early Complex Societies
Early complex society studies, like anthropology in general, are strongly rooted in comparative analysis. Cultural evolutionists of the mid-nineteenth century (Tylor 1865; Morgan 1877; Spencer 1880–97) relied entirely on comparative ethnography to create speculative accounts of the antecedents of contemporary societies. A century later, Sahlins (Sahlins and Service 1960), Service (1962), Fried (1967), and other scholars did the same without assum…
Grand challenges for archaeology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans the biological, physical, and social sciences.
Archaeology (27 works) · History (20 works) · Geography (19 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · History (10 works) · Latin American history and culture (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works)