Affluence and Image: Ethnoarchaeology in a Syrian Village

Abstract

Potential methods for determining social stratification in the archaeological record are suggested by ethnoarchaeological research in the Syrian village of Darnaj, and by comparative materials. No single set of criteria can be expected to correlate with affluence cross-culturally but the best indicators of wealth should be expensive artifacts or architectural features and should not correlate strongly with other sociodemographic variables. Some attributes may be confusing because they correlate more strongly with room functions or with aspects of demography such as household size or number of coresiding families than they do with wealth, while other attributes may be amenable to manipulation by a household to increase its local prestige without a large actual investment. Nevertheless, the Darnaj data suggest that it should be possible for archaeologists to place households in wealth categories based primarily on architectural remains.

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