ABSTRACT
I consider how an anarchist dialectic can be applied to assess political dynamics of societies in the past. Many forms of dialectical analysis based in Marxist approaches emphasise economic relations and class conflict. An anarchist approach can apply an analysis that considers further dynamics than the economic and yet still proceed in dialectical fashion. Anarchists have emphasised that social and political tensions can operate upon other dimensions of domination, including cultural, social, and symbolic terrains. An overarching anarchist perspective orients these forms of contestation, not simply in terms of class or material economy, but as various assertions of dominance that work along multiple fronts, involving cultural, social, or symbolic concerns. In this chapter, I first provide an overview of dialectics in archaeology and secondly review anarchist theories of history, to consider how these fit within a dialectical perspective for archaeological analyses. In so doing, I present such implications for the Iron Age, where I offer that such an approach can have some utility, given the decentralised structure of their societies.
