Well, no, that is exactly the problem. By Peer, we mean "equal, based on a
specific set of criteria" -- think of "a jury of one's peers" rather than
Peers of the Realm. Peer Polities are topographic and administrative
entities that conform to certain criteria of size, population, economic
importance, geographic proximity, etc. The PPI model examines interaction
between similar towns (for example) and NOT top-down interaction between a
Centre and its Periphery.
It is particularly interesting, in your sense, for studying, e.g., cities
of Iron Age Greece. Some of these are democracies, others are oligarchies
or monarchies; the PPI model is not so much interested in how the
Nobility/Adligen of each town affect cultural change than in how the
interactions BETWEEN the towns, regardless of "class," affect change, and
how those interactions are in turn affected. This is greatly
oversimplified, of course. But you can see how it is a totally different
approach. In the cases of, for example, Mont Lassois, the Salzkammergut or
the Hohenasperg and environs, I would love the see a PPI-influenced
approach used to analyse the regional dynamics -- we have gone about as far
as we can go, I think, with models based on "Fürsten" and their actions; a
change of focus to encompass the polities and their interactions seems to
me a fruitful and logical next step. My hope was that someone was already
doing this ...
Cheers
Cze
>Although there may well be an anti-theoretical bias in German archaeology,
>I cannot really see that the reply from the German list was that wrong.
>Surely, the 'peer polity' model is based on a top to bottom construct,
>i.e. it is the leaders (whom the German reply calls 'Adligen', in what I
>presume is a word play on the meaning of peer in English as well) who act
>to develop similar social and political entities, and isn't that what your
>German reply says?
>Best wishes,
>Ingegerd H.
>
>Dr. Ingegerd Holand
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Constanze Witt
Instructional Technology Specialist
UT Austin Classics Dept; Waggener Hall 17, C3400
Austin TX 78712
[log in to unmask], (512) 471 8684, fax (512) 471-4111
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/
"I am as concerned as the next woman about the global recession, but what
I want, what I really really want is one of those new curvy, sexy iMac
computers - God, they're gorgeous." Suzanne Moore, The Independent
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