| The discovery of Sanxingdui unexpectedly revealed an urban center in the Chengdu Basin. Equally unexpected, indigenous and Shang style artifacts coexisted at the site, and with the Shang works serving local purposes. From the perspective of interaction, this study is an attempt to understand how and why this society was able to maintain its artistic identity while engaging in interaction with the more complex and powerful Shang.;The Chengdu Basin, known for its self-sufficient environment, was in a landlocked setting. During the third millennium BC, if not earlier, communities there became stratified and developed distinctive symbol systems. It was not until the next millennium that Sanxingdui connected with the middle-Yangzi region. Later the Sanxingdui complex gained regional dominance and was in extensive interaction within the basin and beyond. The mid-Yangzi areas, where communities grew rapidly after stimulation by the Shang, may have served as providers of Shang casting technology and artifact types to the Chengdu Basin area.;Nevertheless, Sanxingdui was neither a Shang colony nor its direct exchange partner. Inter-regional contact served as a resource that strengthened Sanxingdui's position in a competitive regional network, which may have supplied subsistence goods and other materials.;Studies of the Pacific Northwest, Burma and Mesoamerica, where elite arts in the less complex groups were assimilated by more complex partners, suggest that the changes of those elite arts are a parameter of interaction. Variables significant to the changes are: (i) base and level of social development of participating communities, or base of interaction; (ii) demand generated by the development, or motivation of interaction; (iii) resources available, or materials in exchange; and (iv) form of interaction, such as migration, warfare or trade. By comparison, Sanxingdui was among highly stratified local communities with an entrenched symbolism; was in a self-sufficient environment; was in indirect contact with Shang; and was, therefore, allowed to develop continuously the indigenous identity while making use of "outside" art for its own sake.;Methodologically, this dissertation is characterized by its interpretation of interaction in a regional context and its modeling of archeological questions about ancient art. |
