Full Description
This book studies past economics from anthropological, archaeological, historical and sociological perspectives. By analyzing archeological and other evidence, it examines economic behavior and institutions in ancient societies. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it critically discusses dominant economic models that have influenced the study of past economic relations in various disciplines, while at the same time highlighting alternative theoretical trajectories. In this regard, the book's goal is not only to test theoretical models under scrutiny, but also to present evidence against the rationalization of past economic behavior according to the rules of modern markets. The contributing authors cover various topics, such as trade in the classical Greek world, concepts of commodity and value, and management of economic affluence.
Contents
Chapter 1 - An Introduction to the Critique of Archaeological Economy (Reinhard Jung, Stefanos Gimatzidis).- Chapter 2 - Writing the Deep History of Human Economy (Randall McGuire).- Chapter 3 - Wealth, Women's Labor, and Forms of Value: Thinking From the Study of Ancestral Central America (Rosemary A. Joyce).- Chapter 4 - "The Economy has no surplus": Harry W. Pearson's contribution revisited, 60 years later (Svend Hansen).- Chapter 5 - Crafting Values in Chalcolithic Cyprus and Anatolia (Bleda S. Düring).- Chapter 6 - The Bornhöck burial mound and the political economy of an Únětice ruler (Roberto Risch, Harald Meller, Selina Delgado-Raack, and Torsten Schunke).- Chapter 7 - Property and markets: the uses of land in pharaonic Egypt beyond redistributive and neoliberal approaches (Juan Carlos Moreno García).- Chapter 8 - Uneven and Combined: Product Exchange in the Mediterranean 3rd to 2nd Millennium BCE) (Reinhard Jung).- Chapter 9 - Tripod Dedication: Gift and Commodity Exchange inAncient Greece (Stefanos Gimatzidis).- Chapter 10 - Happily connected? The interconnectivity paradigm and the debate about the ancient economy (Jan Paul Crielaard).- Chapter 11 - Aegean Transport Amphoras (6th to 1st centuries BCE): Exploring Social Tension in a Path Dependency Model (Mark L. Lawall).- Chapter 12 - Modelling trade in Athenian pottery in the archaic and classical period (Robin Osborne).
