The materialization of power and the identification of political models in the archaeological context

In the last two decades there has been an explosion of studies dealing with the nature of power and its expression on the archaeological record. We have witnessed the development of a myriad of topics of study in the different expressions of power, from gender studies to colonialism or performance as a mean of social domination However, there are fewer studies devoted to the relationship of power, the models of state and, in concrete, the feasibility of interpreting different political models in the archaeological context and record. This work is intended to be a general review of the topic. In order to achieve this, I will develop a discourse from the more general, the definition of the terms involved in the analysis, to the more specific: which is the material expression, if any, of the different political models in which a society can be organized, moving away from the traditional interpretations that most of these phenomena have had in the discipline.