Pathways to power in the southern Brazilian highlands : households, communities and status at Southern Proto-JĂȘ pit house settlements
This thesis is a contribution to the debate about the emergence of politically complex societies in the southern Brazilian highlands from a regional, community and household approach. At the regional level, I compare settlement patterns of the Southern Proto-JĂȘ (Taquara/ItararĂ© Tradition) in different areas, developing a model of territories structured around central places â represented by dense pit house villages and oversized pit houses. I test this model with new survey data from a yet unexplored region. At the centre of the pilot area, the site Baggio 1 â a dense, well-planned settlement focused around an oversized pit house â was chosen for excavations. I frame the discussion about the function of oversized structures in the broader theoretical debates about aggrandising vs corporate strategies in early complex societies and their archaeological correlates. Thus, the excavations at Baggio 1 were targeted at understanding community organisation, functional variation between pit houses of distinct sizes, and inter-household differentiation. I demonstrate how the oversized House 1 emerged as the founding structure in the settlement, hosting ceremonies of house renewal during the first part of the
De Souza, Jonas Gregorio
Pathways to power in the southern Brazilian highlands : households, communities and status at Southern Proto-JĂȘ pit house settlements. This thesis is a contribution to the debate about the emergence of politically complex societies in the southern Brazilian highlands from a regional, community and household approach. At the regional level, I compare settlement patterns of the Southern Proto-JĂȘ (Taquara/ItararĂ© Tradition) in different areas, developing a model of territories structured around central places â represented by dense pit house villages and oversized pit houses. I test this model with new survey data from a yet unexplored region. At the centre of the pilot area, the site Baggio 1 â a dense, well-planned settlement focused around an oversized pit house â was chosen for excavations. I frame the discussion about the function of oversized structures in the broader theoretical debates about aggrandising vs corporate strategies in early complex societies and their archaeological correlates. Thus, the excavations at Baggio 1 were targeted at understanding community organisation, functional variation between pit houses of distinct sizes, and inter-household differentiation. I demonstrate how the oversized House 1 emerged as the founding structure in the settlement, hosting ceremonies of house renewal during the first part of the
pathways power southern brazilian highland household_community status southern proto pit house settlement debate emergence politically complex_society southern brazilian highland regional community household approach regional_level compare settlement_pattern southern proto tradition different area develop_model territory structure_around central place represent dense pit house village pit house test model new survey_data yet unexplored region centre pilot area site dense well settlement focus around pit house choose excavation frame discussion function structure broader theoretical_debate corporate strategy early complex_society archaeological correlate thus excavation target community organisation functional variation pit house distinct size inter household differentiation house emerge founding structure settlement host ceremony house renewal first_part