Incorporating Heterarchy into Theory on Socio‐political Development: The Case from Southeast Asia

Abstract

As archeological research in mainland Southeast Asia progresses beyond the pioneering stage, the emerging data pose a number of challenges to theories of socio‐political development. Attempts to apply models assuming nested, conical, hierarchical progressions derivative from the band‐tribe‐chiefdom‐state continuum often seem inadequate and somehow unable to account for the significant socio‐political dynamics that are increasingly evident from the data. This chapter proposes that a shift in modeling the region's socio‐political trajectory away from a stepprogression, hierarchical approach toward a dynamic, heterarchical approach will advance understanding of this region's distinctive social development and will contribute to broadening and refining theory on the formation of states and the development of social complexity.