Complex Society

In archeology and anthropology, a complex society is the social formation, which otherwise known as a developed or formative state.  Some of the main criteria of the complexity are mentioned below.

• The extent of the division of labor wherein the members of the society are comparatively permanently specialized in specific activities and most of them depend on others for services and goods within a system which is regulated by the laws and customs.

•  The size of the population of the human community- the bigger the population, the more variegated and complex the co-existence of the people tends to become.

Social complexity refers to typically to the political complexity, particularly the hierarchy in the form of the ruling elite which is supported by the bureaucrats such as elite residences and administrative buildings in proto-urban or urban population centers. Complex societies also describes about agriculture to offer the surplus needed to support the social elite. The origins of these kinds of social formations that appear in several places around the globe is one the main task of the archaeology

There are, but, issues with the word “complexity” while used in this way or manner.  It has been argued that using the subsistence strategy (political organization or technological sophistication) as the measure of the complexity supports concepts of the western supremacy over other types of the social complexity. For instance, any given society might be comparatively complex than any other given society in one or more phases (for instance, western society could be classified as exceptionally simple from the perspective of  the kinship structures as contrasted to, for example, the Indigenous Australian societies). That is, the Indigenous Australian societies are extremely complex societies.

Questionnaire:

• What complex society 
• Explain more about complex society with an example.
• What is  term ‘complexity’ in archaeology?