Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- PART I: Theoretical Perspectives -- 1. Cultural and Evolutionary Dynamics of Cooperation in Archaeological Perspective -- COOPERATION: DEFINITIONS AND APPROACHES -- Conceptualizing Cooperation -- Public Goods and Common-Pool Resource Problems -- Mechanisms Promoting Cooperation: The Four Rs -- Cooperation and Collective Action in Cultural Evolution -- DEVELOPING ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON COOPERATION -- Resource Problems -- Institutions and strategies -- Material Cultures of Cooperation -- ORGANIZATION OF THE VOLUME -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 2. The Emergence of Social Complexity: Why More than Population Size Matters -- HUMAN GROUPS ARE DISTINCTIVE -- EGALITARIANISM -- THE NEOLITHIC PACKAGE, POPULATION, AND COMPLEXITY -- ZOOMING DOWN ON SIZE-COMPLEXITY -- BRINGING IN INTEGRATION -- DIFFERENT HISTORICAL PATHWAYS -- VARIATION IN INTEGRATIVE STRATEGIES: AN EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK -- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 3. War, Collective Action, and the "Evolution" of Human Polities -- COLLECTIVE-ACTION THEORY AND HUMAN INTERESTS -- WAR AND THE FORMATION OF LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL GROUPS -- THE NATION-STATE AND DEFENSIVE ORGANIZATION -- SCALE AND THE DEFENSIVE COMMUNITY -- THE NATURE AND SCALE OF POLITICAL CENTRALIZATION -- SYMBIOSIS AND ANTAGONISM: RECONCILING VOLUNTARISTIC AND CONFLICT APPROACHES -- CONQUEST WARFARE, POLITICAL INTEGRATION, AND EMPIRE -- EMPIRE AND THE FAILURES OF MODERNITY -- CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 4. The Ritualized Economy and Cooperative Labor in Intermediate Societies -- COOPERATION -- MAINTAINING ECONOMIC COOPERATION THROUGH RITUAL AND TABOO -- SCHEDULING OF DOMESTIC LABOR AND THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTIONAL RITUALIZATION -- SUMMARY -- NOTES -- REFERENCES.

5. Reconsidering Darwinian Anthropology: With Suggestions for a Revised Agenda for Cooperation Research -- PROSOCIAL ACTION IS ARGUED TO RESULT (IN PART) FROM BIOLOGICALLY EVOLVED MENTAL MODULES AND SOCIAL INSTINCTS -- METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND OTHER CHALLENGES TO DARWINIAN ANTHROPOLOGY -- Cooperation Is Not Necessarily a Product of Mental Modules or Social Instincts -- Steps to a Multiscalar Perspective on Contingent Cooperation -- AN EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC APPROACH FOR COOPERATION RESEARCH APPLIED TO PREMODERN STATES -- THE PROBLEMATIZATION OF RELIGION AND POWER IN MORE COOPERATIVE POLITIES -- How Is the Relationship of Power and Religion Problematized? -- ASANTE -- Lozi -- SWAHILI LAMU -- EARLY AND MIDDLE MING DYNASTY -- ATHENS -- ROMAN HIGH EMPIRE PERIOD -- VENICE -- OTTOMAN EMPIRE -- AZTEC -- Conclusions from the Analysis of Dichotomized Data on Polity and Religion -- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS -- The Contingent Character of Human Social Action Brings cooperator Dilemmas -- Final Comments -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 6. Agency and Collective Action -- HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGIES OF COLLECTIVE ACTION -- Race -- Gender -- Class -- CONCLUSIONS FOR AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR -- REFERENCES -- PART II: Case Studies -- 7. Free-Riding, Cooperation, and Population Growth: The Evolution of Privatization and Leaders in Owens Valley, California -- COOPERATION AND FREE-RIDING -- OWENS VALLEY AS A CASE STUDY -- TESTING THE PRIVATIZATION MODEL -- New Subsistence Pursuits -- Interhousehold Heterogeneity -- Intrahousehold Activity Areas -- Discussion -- THE EVOLUTION OF PRIVATIZED, EXCLUDABLE GOODS AND SMALL-SCALE LEADERS -- REFERENCES -- 8. Cooperation and Competition among Late Woodland Households at Kolomoki, Georgia -- THE MIDDLE WOODLAND AND EARLY LATE WOODLAND PERIODS -- THE TERMINAL LATE WOODLAND -- DISCUSSION.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 9. The Competitive Context of Cooperation in Pre-Hispanic Barinas, Venezuela: A Multilevel-Selection Approach -- MODELING THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION -- THE EL GAVÁN POLITY IN BARINAS, VENEZUELA -- OTHER REGIONAL POLITIES -- APPLYING THE MULTILEVEL-SELECTION MODEL -- EVIDENCE OF INTERPOLITY CONFLICT -- CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 10. Water Control and the Emergence of Polities in the Southern Maya Lowlands: Evolutionary, Economic, and Ecological Models -- PATRON-CLIENT RELATIONS: A SIMPLE SCENARIO WITH COMPLEX RESULTS -- SURPLUS DISTRIBUTION IN THE PATRON-CLIENT SCENARIO AND SIMULATION -- WATER CONTROL AND THE PATRON-CLIENT SCENARIO IN THE SOUTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS -- ECONOMIC BARGAINING MODELS -- FROM THE EMERGENCE OF POLITIES TO THEIR DECLINE -- LIMITATIONS OF THE MODELS -- CONCLUDING REMARKS AND SYNTHESIS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 11. Labor Collectives and Group Cooperation in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico -- LABOR COLLECTIVES AND GROUP COOPERATION IN THE ETHNOGRAPHIC AND ETHNOHISTORIC RECORDS -- LABOR COLLECTIVES AND GROUP COOPERATION IN THE LATE FORMATIVE TO CLASSIC PERIODS -- Resource Problems -- Institutions and Strategies -- Material symbols and Ritual -- CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 12. Caste as a Cooperative Economic Entitlement Strategy in Complex Societies of the Indian Subcontinent and Sub-Saharan Africa -- GROUP RESPONSES TO PERIODS OF DECLINE IN COMPLEX SOCIETIES -- THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT -- WEST AFRICA -- THE DEVELOPMENT OF CASTE AS A GROUP-LEVEL RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND POLITICAL FLUCTUATIONS -- DISCUSSION -- CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 13. The Dynamics of Cooperation in Context -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Contributors -- Index.