Publications

2015
Jaffe Y. Questioning religious essentialism – Ritual change and religious instability in ancient China. Journal of Social Archaeology. 2015;15 (1) :3-23. Publisher's VersionAbstract

This paper challenges the recurring theme in archaeological research that places reli-gions at the core of social identity. It investigates the theoretical literature that hasinfluenced how archaeologists understand the study of religion and has subsequentlyreinforced this idea. It surveys the changing religious attitudes and ritual practices inancient China during the first millennium BC to demonstrate their surprising instability.A model is presented where ritual is an ever-changing source of ideological tensions andreligion is but one faceof social identitynot its basisConsequentlyreligion is seen asnaturally susceptible to both rapid and slow changes, driven by both inner social pro-cesses and external stimuli.

2014
Shelach G, Jaffe Y. The Earliest States in China: A Long-term Trajectory Approach. Journal of Archaeological Research. 2014;22 (4) :327-364. Publisher's VersionAbstract

The origins, development, and makeup of early state societies in Chinahave long been favorittopiof research, though therharecentlbeen anupsurge of attention among archaeologists in China and abroad. Research has beendominated by the identification of the Erlitou site from the early second millenniumBC as the center of the earliest state in China, sometimes identified with the XiaDynasty. Recently, several scholars have employed neo-evolutionary criteria for theidentification of Erlitou society as China’s earliest state in an attempt to provideobjective criteria for the traditional historiographical narrative. Overarching socialand ecological models of cultural change have been severely criticized by anthro-pological archaeologistsand manarchaeologists studying the developmenof ancient societies prefer to focus on individual case studies or specific institutionsrather than on the state. In contrast to recent archaeological scholarship that hascalled for its total abandonment, we find the “state” a useful concept for under-standing local trajectories as well as cross-cultural comparisons. In this article wesuggest a way of incorporating the warnings against simplistic overarching modelswhile maintaining the notion of rapid sociopolitical change associated with stateformation. Based on an analysis of the long-term trajectory, we identify, in northChina, two phases of rapid transformations: the first, starting around 2500 BC, whenseveral unstable regional states evolved and declined, and the second, around 1600BC, when an intraregionastate, usually identifiewith the historical Shang, rapidly evolved.

2012
Jaffe Y. Materializing Identity — A Statistical Analysis of the Western Zhou Liulihe Cemetery. Asian Perspectives . 2012;51 (1) :47-67. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Questions of identity are of paramount importance in research of the Western Zhouperiod, both in the central plain and among its vassal states. Yet most research done todate has focused on the Zhou bureaucratic order and government. These analyses havebeen very successful in delineating political culture, administration, and kinship ties, andhave provided important information on elite taste and customs. However, they havepaid less attention to uncovering other social groupings and relations, and do not sys-tematically address the ways in which local identities were exercised or displayed. Thisarticle presents a multivariate statistical analysis of the Liulihe cemetery of the WesternZhou state of Yan. This analysis uncovers new elements comprising the complex socialmakeup and identity of the Liulihe occupants. These findings provide a richer under-standing of the Yan society compared with the traditional approach that centered onthe delineation of Zhou political elements and ethnic characteristics. A more intri-cate society emerges, one not solely defined by the amount of Zhou style it exhibited.

Keywords

: Western Zhou, ethnicity, identity, multivariate analysis, mortuary practices.
2011
Shelach G, Raphael K, Jaffe Y. Sanzuodian: The Structure, Function and Social Significance of the Earliest Stone Fortified Sites in China. Antiquity . 2011;85 (327) :11-26. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Thauthorpresenneresearch on thChifeng area of north-eastern China where they have been studying thremainof society of the second millennium BC. This northern region, which saw the introductionof agriculturat thsame timathe Yellow River basin experienced a brief and intensive period of fortification in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age: natural ridgeabove the valleys were ringed with double stone walls and semicircular towers enclosing clusters of round houses with yards. Using large-scalesurveyandanalysisofthestructureat the key site of Sanzuodian, they place this  phenomenon in its cultural and social context.