Archaeological perspectives on the rise of the Okinawan state

This paper presents an examination of processes of secondary state formatio n that occurred during the emergence of the Ryukyu kingdom, in southwestern Japan, from the tenth to seventeenth centuries AD. These processes include the influx of new populations, the appearance of new subsistence strategie s and political groupings, shifting patterns of long-distance trade, the de velopment of new patterns of foreign relations with China and Japan, the cr eation of indigenous culture and new ideology, and the transformation of ge nder hierarchy. I examine these processes form the perspective of political leadership and the nature of political hierarchy, concluding that the Okin awan case is distinctive in its heterarchical organization. The corporate, collective nature of Okinawan communities was overlain by a state-level net work system that developed at the time of tributary linkages with China in the fourteenth century AD.