Elites and other special interest groups often have recourse to ideology to establish, challenge or change a specific socio-political order. Transposing that axiom, it may also be observed that power relations within society serve to establish religious authority and to legitimise specific ideological practices and insignia. This mirror-image relationship between religious ideology and socio-political power is discussed in relation to the elaboration and development of political organisation in emergent state society. The archaeological record of Middle and Late Bronze Age Cyprus (about 1700-1200 B. C.) reveals copious material indicative of ritual behaviour and provides evidence that religious ideology is integral to the economy, and to the social relations of production. The Cypriote case study also exemplifies how archaeology’s diachronic perspective can promote better understanding of the relationship between religious ideology and politico-economic power: through an ideological filter, social and technological change is not only monitored, but explained.
