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ELIZABETH M. BRUMFIEL
Albion College
This article was presented as the third annual Distinguished Lecture in Archeology at the 90
annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 22, 1991, in Chic
Illinois.
F OR ALMOST
sumptions of THIRTY YEARS,
the ecosystem American
approach. Thearcheology
longevity ofhas been
this operating
approach unde
is no accid
the ecosystem program has been highly productive. From ecosystem theory, we hav
quired a sensitivity to structural causation and an appreciation for the intercon
ness of social and ecological variables. We have also gathered much relevant informa
about energy exchanges, information flows, scheduling, risk, nutrition, labor inten
cation, and demographic trends in prehistory. But while the ecosystem approa
been very productive in some areas of research, it has retarded progress in others,
ularly in the analysis of social change.
The analysis of social change has been hampered by ecosystem theory's insis
upon whole populations and whole behavioral systems as the units of analysis. In foc
ing on whole populations, and whole systems of adaptive cultural behavior, eco
theorists have neglected the dynamics of social change arising from internal so
gotiation. Social negotiation consists of conflicts and compromises among peopl
different problems and possibilities by virtue of their membership in different all
networks. Most frequently, these alliance networks arise on the basis of gender, cla
factional affiliation.
This paper argues three points. First, the ecosystem theorists' emphasis upon whole
populations and whole adaptive behavioral systems obscures the visibility of gender,
class, and faction in the prehistoric past. Second, an analysis that takes account of gender,
class, and faction can explain many aspects of the prehistoric record that the ecosystem
perspective cannot explain. Third, an appreciation for the importance of gender, class,
and faction in prehistory compels us to reject the ecosystem-theory view that cultures are
adaptive systems. Instead, we must recognize that culturally based behavioral "systems"
are the composite outcomes of negotiation between positioned social agents pursuing
their goals under both ecological and social constraints.
ELIZABETH M. BRUMFIEL is Professor, Department ofAnthropology and Sociology, Albion College, Albion, MI 49224.
551
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552 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [94, 1992
Sanders and Price 1968:71; Hill 1977:88; Redman 1978a:13; Struever and Holton
1979:84-85). Second, ecosystem theorists assert that humans play a very limited role in
determining the course of culture change. Applying the model of natural selection to cul-
tural systems, ecosystem theorists argue that human decisions, intentions, and creativity
are simply sources of behavioral variation. Systemic context determines the differential
survival of these behaviors. Behavioral changes that produce viable cultural systems en-
dure and leave their imprint on prehistory; behavioral changes resulting in nonviable
cultural systems disappear as the cultures, themselves, fail (White 1949:141; Flannery
1967:122, 1972:411; Sanders and Price 1968:73; Hill 1977:66-67; Redman 1978a:10-13;
Dunnell 1980:62; Braun and Plog 1982:506; Price 1982:724).
Together, these two propositions focus attention on the cultural-behavioral system
rather than the social actor. This focus is clearly evident in that diagnostic artifact of
ecosystem archeology, the flowchart of culture change (see Figure 1; other examples in-
clude Wright 1970, 1977; Flannery 1972; Harris 1977; Johnson 1978; King 1978; and
Hassan 1981). For example, the emphasis on systems rather than social actors determines
the perspective of the flowchart, which is "etic" rather than "emic." That is, the chart
provides an overview of the system as a whole, rather than a view of the system as it might
look to a member of the society. As Cowgill (1975:506) notes, ecosystem theorists have
no real interest in "the needs, problems, possibilities, incentives, information, and view-
points of specific individuals or categories of individuals" within the system. The empha-
sis on systems rather than social actors also determines the units that constitute the boxes
or components in this flowchart, which are activities rather than agents, functions rather
than performers. Social actors are reduced to invisible, equivalent, abstract units of labor
power. Finally, the ecosystem theorists' reliance upon natural selection as the mechanism
Increase in Warfare
SizeNI
Increase in
Information
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Brumfiel] DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN ARCHEOLOGY 553
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554 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [94, 1992
Gender
In the focus on behavioral systems rather than actors, gender disappears. Despite the
widespread recognition that age and sex provide universal bases of social status and
division of labor in human societies, gender (and age) have received very little attention
from archeologists. Flowcharts of social process, such as that cited above, never ass
gender to the activities they diagram. The lack of attention to gender has contin
through the 1980s, even in archeological studies of the household, where production, di
tribution, transmission, and reproduction are based in very direct and concrete ways o
a gendered division of labor and a gender-based definition of social status (Tringh
1991:101; for examples, see Wilk and Rathje 1982; Wilk and Ashmore 1988; Stani
1989). Even when analysis involves the definition of probable male and female activities
and activity areas (e.g., Clarke 1972; Flannery and Winter 1976), it stops short of recon
structing integrated male and female roles. This failure to define gender roles is an un
derstandable consequence of the emphasis on behavioral systems. The unstated attit
is, I think, that it really doesn't matter who did what in prehistory, as long as the nec
sary subsistence functions were performed. This is thought to be especially true of hou
hold subsistence tasks, since the household is regarded as a cooperative unit based on th
pooling of goods and services. But it matters very much who did what, for at least thr
reasons.
First, when gender roles are not explicitly defined, they are
and Spector 1984; Conkey and Gero 1991). It has been taken
men and women, procure food while women process it. Men co
women engage in household maintenance. Men make states;
it is assumed. And assigning a task to women has virtually assu
archeological data pertaining to that task would go unrecog
Compare, for example, the extensive analysis of food procure
models such as optimal foraging theory and game theory with
given food processing. There is a greater literature on the heat
the heat treatment of food (but see Stahl 1989). Studies of c
number studies of ceramic use. Spatial and temporal variability
ing stones, cooking vessels, fuels, hearths, and ovens has not b
see Jackson 1991; Bartlett 1933; Clark 1988; Braun 1981; Co
Hastorf and Johannessen 1991; Hayden 1981). The same has
cilities associated with hide-working, textile production, and t
cord products such as traps and nets (but see Weiner and Sc
I believe that the explicit effort to assign activities to female
some of these disparities obvious and stimulate ground-breakin
known classes of archeological data, delineating both their r
strategic factors that explain their variation.
Second, assigning activities to male or female actors is a first
tegrated models of the gendered division of labor. Such mo
estimating work loads and pinpointing scheduling conflicts, bo
tant implications for strategic decision making and be
1991:277). Flannery (1968a:75) pointed out some time ago that t
the lines of sex is one common solution to scheduling conflicts
But only recently has it been suggested that scheduling proble
activities might explain observed changes in the exploitation o
shellfish and plants, including plant domestication (Claassen
1991), or that maximizing the efficiency of women's work rou
factor in structuring some settlement patterns (Jackson 1991)
Third, the calculation of gender-specific work loads has im
modeling systemic change. For example, most models of em
tions assume the ability to generate surplus production, a
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Brumfiel] DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN ARCHEOLOGY 555
Class
There is an interesting asymmetry in the way that ecosystem theorists have treated
dominant and subordinate classes, as is evident in our flowchart example (see Figur
Elites constitute the only people-filled component of the system, and they are a very ac
component-there are a lot of arrows leaving this box as well as entering it.2 In contra
the activities and interests of subordinate classes are divided among various syst
components and are nowhere regarded as a coherent force in determining ecosys
structure. The existence of this asymmetry is a straightforward consequence of the as
sumptions of ecosystem theory. Elites are viewed as performing managerial funct
and, therefore, as being endowed with the ability to impose their decisions upon the s
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556 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [94, 1992
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Brumfiel] DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN ARCHEOLOGY 557
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558 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [94, 1992
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Brumfiel] DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN ARCHEOLOGY 559
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560 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [94, 1992
Notes
Acknowledgments. This paper has benefited immensely from the comments and criticisms offe
by Len Berkey, Michael Blake, Mary Collar, John Clark, George Cowgill, Antonio Gilman,
Hodge, Roberto Korzeniewicz, Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Tom Patterson, Glenn Perusek, H
Wright, Rita Wright, and members of the Department of Anthropology, New York Universi
where an earlier version of this paper was presented. I am very grateful for their help.
'This is in keeping with the idea of at least some ecosystem theorists that explanation in arc
ogy would consist of laws of correlation, rather than laws of connection (Wylie 1982:386). Fo
ample, Binford (1962:218) defines scientific explanation as "the demonstration of a constant a
ulation of variables within a system and the measurement of the concomitant variability amon
variables within the system." This definition betrays an interest in systemic function rather
systemic structure, that is, a concern with what the system does as opposed to how it operate
Salmon 1978:175).
2In fact, Redman (1978b:341) regards the self-interested activities of the elite as a major pro
leading to the emergence of social complexity: "the elite . . . were participants in the fifth po
feedback relationship--that is, purposeful strategies of the elite to stimulate further growth o
institutions that gave them their power and wealth."
3Adams's (1974) examination of Mesopotamian ecology from the viewpoint of the indivi
peasant producer offers interesting contrasts to Redman's (1978a:229-236) more system-fo
approach.
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