Overview

A political economy approach to prehistory offers a robust means to understand different pathways to complexity. Why do states with extreme inequality develop quickly in some circumstance, while in others egalitarian societies continue for thousands of years? The search for primary drivers like population density, warfare, trade, irrigation, or information have proven largely inadequate. This essay argues that economic relations and their potential for control of surplus mobilization explain alternative evolutionary trajectories in human societies.

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9783774941151

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The work provides a valuable distillation of the thinking of a major theoretician of prehistoric archaeology that will be especially useful in university courses on archaeological theory. . . . In the one-and-a-half-page conclusion, he also points out that archaeologists have much to contribute to our understanding of the rise of autocracy and inequality in the modern world. --Kirch, Patrick V., American Antiquity, Vol.85, No.2, 2020

Author Information

Timothy Earle, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

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