ABSTRACT
Families or households, political systems, and economic systems are examples of social organization. The activities and groups that accomplish the work of living in a society—through systems of affiliation, rules, and procedures—are known as its social organization. A recent emphasis in interpreting past societies attempts to understand the cognitive systems on which those societies were built. Archaeologists are divided on whether symbol systems of the past can be known and understood. Much of the work in understanding past cultural systems is the struggle to recognize the political and social boundaries that distinguish groups. In constructing past ethnic and cultural identities, archaeologists need to exercise care, because researchers can all too easily conflate archaeological cultures with current ones. In constructing models of past political systems, archaeologists estimate the size and scale of the society and culture, including population, settlement pattern, and basic subsistence system.
