In Search of a Theoretical Assessment of Bronze Age Society in the Baltic Countries
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19511189 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Agnė Čivilytė (0000-0002-8793-7255, Lithuanian Institute of History, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Pages | 14-27 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeologia BALTICA (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1392-5520 • E-ISSN: 2351-6534 |
| Publisher | Klaipeda University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.15181/ab.v18i0.63 |
| OpenAlex | W2049516265 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
This article surveys tendencies in Bronze Age social research in the Baltic countries. It marks a new departure in archaeological scholarship in the region, and examines the influence of wider European theories on local Bronze Age research. The most important issue to be discussed is the uncritical application of theoretical models on east Baltic archaeology, without reference to the region’s specific culture. Thus, the Bronze Age social structure is reconstructed according to a priori formulated precepts. The article discusses the possible negative implications of such a transference of foreign theories, which leads to the prejudgement of results in regional archaeological studies. Special criticism is levelled at the application of the pyramid social model, which offers a false interpretation of Prehistoric social structures on the basis of recent research. We offer new alternatives in the sphere of societal studies, which pay most attention to processes whereby people dominate as individual agents, rather than to the classification of archaeological material according to the nature or implied value of such material
Archaeology · Bronze · Bronze Age · Criticism · Political science · Prehistory · Scholarship · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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