Erlitou: The Making of a Secondary State and a New Sociopolitical Order in Early Bronze Age China

This article builds on recent archaeological theorizing about early complex societies to analyze the political anthropology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China in a culture-specific trajectory over the longue duree. Synthesizing the latest archaeological discoveries, I show that a series of successive declines, beginning around 2000 BC, took place throughout lowland China. This put an end to the lowland states of the Longshan period (2400-1900 BC) and provided the context for the constitution of the Erlitou secondary state (1900-1500 BC). Following the shift in archaic states studies from identifying what to investigating how, I focus on the strategies, institutions, and relations that undergirded and sustained the Erlitou secondary state. I explore how heterogeneous lowland populations were reorganized after collapse, how a new collective identity was created through ritual and religious performance at the household level at Erlitou, and how Erlitou's ideologies, political system, and economic network were shaped by the upland polities and societies. Through a series of innovative practices, the Erlitou secondary state did not replicate the preceding Longshan states but instead pioneered a sociopolitical order that was repeatedly reenacted and referred to as a source of legitimacy in successive Bronze Age Central Plains polities.

Automated summary

This article examines the political anthropology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China, with a focus on the rise of the Erlitou secondary state. It explores the reorganization of lowland populations, the creation of a new collective identity, and the influence of upland polities and societies on Erlitou's ideologies, political system, and economic network.