Uniform pottery and artifact styles are the result of many different complex socio-economic processes.

Centralized authority and social stratification have been major topics of discussion among scholars studying the Indus Civilization, and yet the data used to support the presence of centralized authority and social stratification are admittedly poor and unreliable (Jacobson 1986). Repeated analyses and modified versions of the various positions have continued to be based on inadequately recorded structures, limited excavations, generalizations about artifact uniformity and unreliable site proportions or identification. Such data are heardly suitable to use as a foundation upon which to decide the character of a major civilization let alone the processes which led to its formation.