As an outgrowth of the social evolutionism movement of the nineteenth century, archaeologists still make a point of trying to define the elements of social organization for each site they investigate.
Social organization of a group includes how people interact, the kinship systems they use, marriage residency patterns, how they divide up the various tasks that need to be completed, who has access to specific goods and knowledge, what ranking strategy is being used.
Archaeologists look for clues to the social organization of the people who occupied a site by looking for concentrations of artifacts in a site, a comparison of grave goods, and other considerations.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Characteristics of Ancient Civilizations, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
