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It wasn't just Greece: Archaeologists find early democratic societies in the Americas

Wade, Lizzie
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/it-wasnt-just-greece-archaeologists-find-early-democratic-societies-americas

Publisher:  Science Magazine
Date Written:  15/03/2017
Year Published:  2017  
Resource Type:  Article

Recent discoveries indicate that Tlaxcallan, Mexico is one of several premodern societies around the world that archaeologists believe were organized collectively, where power was shared and commoners had a say in the government that presided over them.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt: These societies were not necessarily full democracies in which citizens cast votes, but they were radically different from the autocratic, inherited rule found—or assumed—in most early societies. Building on Blanton's originally theoretical ideas, archaeologists now say these "collective societies" left telltale traces in their material culture, such as repetitive architecture, an emphasis on public space over palaces, reliance on local production over exotic trade goods, and a narrowing of wealth gaps between elites and commoners.

"Blanton and his colleagues opened up a new way of examining our data," says Rita Wright, an archaeologist at New York University in New York City who studies the 5000-year-old Indus civilization in today's India and Pakistan, which also shows signs of collective rule. "A whole new set of scholarship has emerged about complex societies."
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