Parikh Danika, Petrie Cameron A
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
World Archaeol. 2019 Jun 18;51(2):252-272. doi: 10.1080/00438243.2019.1601463.
What role do villages play in 'an urban civilisation'? Although it is likely that most of the populations of South Asia's ancient Indus Civilisation would not have lived in cities, it is not clear what their rural way of life would have encompassed. Using ceramic assemblages excavated from Indus-period villages in northwest India, alongside ethnographic records on village organization and rural craft production, this paper argues that Indus villages were characterized by rural complexity. This comprised a range of activities, including craft production, as well as short- and long-distance socio-economic links. Drawing on historical narratives, we show how South Asian villages have been essentialized and presented as either ideal or conservative extremes. We argue for the importance of a better understanding of the breadth and nuances of the rural sphere, and for a greater research focus on village life in the Indus context.
村庄在“城市文明”中扮演着怎样的角色？尽管南亚古代印度河文明的大多数人口可能并非居住在城市，但他们的乡村生活方式具体包含哪些内容尚不清楚。本文利用从印度西北部印度河时期村庄出土的陶瓷组合，结合关于村庄组织和乡村手工业生产的民族志记录，认为印度河村庄的特点是乡村复杂性。这包括一系列活动，如手工业生产，以及短距离和长距离的社会经济联系。借助历史叙事，我们展示了南亚村庄是如何被本质化并被呈现为理想或保守的极端情况。我们主张更深入理解乡村领域的广度和细微差别，并在印度河背景下更加关注村庄生活的研究具有重要意义。
