Interpreting Social Differentiation by Examining the House and Settlement Patterns and the Flow of Resources: A Case Study of Pai-wan Slate House Settlements in Southern Taiwan

Archaeologists have recently suggested that the practice of daily and social life is the prime aspect by which social rules, meanings, and relations of power are embedded for social control. A high degree of system (either political or economic) integration indicates a strong, centralizing, and coordinating control and constraint on practice of mundane life and the flow of resources that eventually will shape the development of settlement patterns as well as house structure and size, and the flow of resources. This study focuses on analyzing evidence, such as the settlement configuration, house shape and size, and distribution of imported or prestige goods, to detect the existence of social differentiation in aboriginal settlements of Taiwan during the Protohistoric period.