Elements in Ancient and Pre-modern Economies – serie
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30 produkter
30 produkter
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
241 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Provides a multi-scalar synthesis of Nordic Bronze Age economies (1800/1700-500 BCE) that is organized around six sections: an introduction to the Nordic Bronze Age, macro-economic perspectives, defining local communities, economic interaction, conflict and alliances, political formations, and encountering Europe. Despite a unifying material culture, the Bronze Age of Scandinavia was complex and multi- layered with constantly shifting and changing networks of competitors and partners. The social structure in this highly mobile and dynamic macroregional setting was affected by subsistence economies based on agropastoralism, maritime sectors, the production of elaborate metal wealth, trade in a wide range of goods, as well as raiding and warfare. For this reason, the focus of this book is on the integration and interaction of subsistence and political economies in a comparative analyses between different local constellations within the macro-economic setting of prehistoric Europe. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Where, when, and under what circumstances did money first emerge? This Element examines this question through a comparative study of the use of shells to facilitate trade and exchange in ancient societies around the world. It argues that shell money was a form of social technology that expanded political-economic capacities by enabling long-distance trade across boundaries and between strangers. The Element examines several cases in which shells and shell beads permeated throughout daily life and became central to the economic functioning of the societies that used them. In several of these cases, it argues that shells were used in ways that meet all the standard definitions of modern money. By examining the wide range of uses of shell money in ancient economic systems around the world, this Element explores the diversity of forms that money has taken throughout human history. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
This Element constitutes a systematic attempt to preliminarily reconstruct the Shang economy based on contemporary archaeological and textual evidence. At the same time, the rapid pace of Chinese archaeological discovery and the increasing deployment of archaeological science means that there is a wealth of new information making a new synthesis both challenging and necessary. This synthesis was written from the perspective that the study of ancient economy necessarily proceeds from the construction of models and the systematic exploration of principal economic components, including their articulation and change over time. Setting the Shang in comparative context with other ancient economies in this series, those principal components are the domestic and institutional economy, specialization, forms of exchange, and diachronic developments. It is hoped that with this organization, comparison with other ancient economies can be more easily made and the significance of the Shang case more clearly seen.
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
239 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Element reconstructs economic developments in the crucial phase of State formation in Mesopotamia, from the 4th to early 3rd millennium BCE, trying to understand how interrelating environmental, social, economic, and political factors in the two main areas of Mesopotamia profoundly changed the structures of societies and transformed the relations between social components, giving rise to increasing inequality and strengthening political institutions. The interrelation between economic changes and state formation and urbanization is analyzed. Mesopotamia represents a foundational case study to understand the processes that transformed the function of economy from being an instrument to satisfy community needs to become a means of producing "wealth" for privileged categories. These processes varied in characteristics and timescales depending on environmental conditions and organizational forms. But wherever they took place, far-reaching changes occurred resulting in emergent hierarchies and new political systems. Reflecting on these changes highlights phenomena still affecting our societies today.
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
246 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
This Element provides an overview of pre-modern and ancient economies of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The region is widely known for its densely occupied semisedentary villages, intensive production economies, dramatic ritual life, and complex social relations. Scholars recognize significant diversity in the structure of subsistence and goods production in the service of domestic groups and institutional entities throughout the region. Here, domestic and institutional economies, specialization, distribution, economic development, and future directions are reviewed. The Element closes with thoughts on the processes of socio-economic change on the scales of houses, villages, and regional strategies.
Häftad, Engelska, 2023
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Aztec Economy provides a synthesis and updated examination of the Aztec economy (1325-1521 AD). It is organized around seven components that recur with other Elements in this series: historic and geographic background, domestic economy, institutional economy, specialization, forms of distribution and commercialization, economic development, and future directions. The Aztec world was complex, hierarchical, and multifaceted, and was in a constant state of demographic growth, recoveries from natural disasters, political alignments and realignments, and aggressive military engagements. The economy was likewise complex and dynamic, and characterized by intensive agriculture, exploitation of non-agricultural resources, utilitarian and luxury manufacturing, wide-scale specialization, merchants, markets, commodity monies, and tribute systems.
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
246 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The question addressed in this Element is: What happens to a society when, in the absence of influence from foreign populations, constraints are released by a new crop making possible significant surplus production? We will draw on the historical traditions of 110 tribes of the Enga of Papua New Guinea recorded over a decade to document the changes that occurred in response to the potential for surplus production after the arrival of the sweet potato some 350 years prior to contact with Europeans. Economic change alone does not restructure a society nor build the social and political scaffolding for new institutions. In response to rapid change, the Enga drew on rituals that altered norms and values and resolved cultural contradictions that inhibited cooperation to bring about complexity rather than chaos. The end result was the development of one of the largest known ceremonial exchange systems prior to state formation.
Häftad, Engelska, 2024
246 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Ancient Maya Economies synthesizes the state of the art across seven components: geographical and historical background, ritual economy, households, specialization, exchange, political economies, and future directions. Other Elements case studies use many of the same components, making it easy to compare and contrast ancient Maya economies with systems of production and consumption in other parts of the world. The time is right for this Elements case because knowledge of ancient Maya economies has undergone a revolution in the last few decades, resulting in a complex panorama of new economic information. Aerial laser scanning has revealed higher amounts of intensive agriculture and research on the ground has turned up better evidence for marketplaces. Maya economies feature specialized production, trade of both bulk goods and luxury goods, close integration with ritual and religion, and a carnival parade of political economies.
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
246 kr
Kommande
This Element is about the interacting socio-ecological relationships of a contemporary Aboriginal foraging economy. In the Western Desert of Australia, Martu Aboriginal systems of subsistence, mobility, property, and transmission are manifest as distinct homelands and networks of religious estates. Estates operate as place-based descent groups, maintained in both material egalitarianism (sharing, dispossession, and immediate return) and ritual hierarchy (exclusion, possession, and delayed return). Interwoven in Martu estate-based foraging economies are the ecological relationships that shape the regeneration of their homelands. The Element explores the dynamism and transformations of Martu livelihoods and landscapes, with a special focus on the role of landscape burning, resource use practices, and property regimes in the function of desert ecosystems.
- Nyhet
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The enslavement of Africans in the Americas profoundly shaped the continent's demography, cultures, languages, and legal systems, playing a decisive role in modern economic growth and the rise of industrial capitalism. Yet, its historical interpretation remains contested. One view sees modern slavery as beginning with the transatlantic slave trade, disconnecting it from earlier traditions in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Another claims slavery is a universal institution, unchanged across millennia. Moving beyond this dichotomy, the book offers a new framework for the study of Black slavery in the Americas. It situates slavery within a broader and older human geography: a world region of enslavement that dates back to the deep historical formation of the Mediterranean basin. By tracing the emergence of modern slavery from within this ancient system, the book sheds new light on its conditions of existence, collapse, and reconfiguration up to the present day.
- Nyhet
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The enslavement of Africans in the Americas profoundly shaped the continent's demography, cultures, languages, and legal systems, playing a decisive role in modern economic growth and the rise of industrial capitalism. Yet, its historical interpretation remains contested. One view sees modern slavery as beginning with the transatlantic slave trade, disconnecting it from earlier traditions in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Another claims slavery is a universal institution, unchanged across millennia. Moving beyond this dichotomy, the book offers a new framework for the study of Black slavery in the Americas. It situates slavery within a broader and older human geography: a world region of enslavement that dates back to the deep historical formation of the Mediterranean basin. By tracing the emergence of modern slavery from within this ancient system, the book sheds new light on its conditions of existence, collapse, and reconfiguration up to the present day.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Provides a multi-scalar synthesis of Nordic Bronze Age economies (1800/1700-500 BCE) that is organized around six sections: an introduction to the Nordic Bronze Age, macro-economic perspectives, defining local communities, economic interaction, conflict and alliances, political formations, and encountering Europe. Despite a unifying material culture, the Bronze Age of Scandinavia was complex and multi- layered with constantly shifting and changing networks of competitors and partners. The social structure in this highly mobile and dynamic macroregional setting was affected by subsistence economies based on agropastoralism, maritime sectors, the production of elaborate metal wealth, trade in a wide range of goods, as well as raiding and warfare. For this reason, the focus of this book is on the integration and interaction of subsistence and political economies in a comparative analyses between different local constellations within the macro-economic setting of prehistoric Europe. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
791 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The question addressed in this Element is: What happens to a society when, in the absence of influence from foreign populations, constraints are released by a new crop making possible significant surplus production? We will draw on the historical traditions of 110 tribes of the Enga of Papua New Guinea recorded over a decade to document the changes that occurred in response to the potential for surplus production after the arrival of the sweet potato some 350 years prior to contact with Europeans. Economic change alone does not restructure a society nor build the social and political scaffolding for new institutions. In response to rapid change, the Enga drew on rituals that altered norms and values and resolved cultural contradictions that inhibited cooperation to bring about complexity rather than chaos. The end result was the development of one of the largest known ceremonial exchange systems prior to state formation.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Where, when, and under what circumstances did money first emerge? This Element examines this question through a comparative study of the use of shells to facilitate trade and exchange in ancient societies around the world. It argues that shell money was a form of social technology that expanded political-economic capacities by enabling long-distance trade across boundaries and between strangers. The Element examines several cases in which shells and shell beads permeated throughout daily life and became central to the economic functioning of the societies that used them. In several of these cases, it argues that shells were used in ways that meet all the standard definitions of modern money. By examining the wide range of uses of shell money in ancient economic systems around the world, this Element explores the diversity of forms that money has taken throughout human history. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
245 kr
Kommande
Specialization, the regularized or institutionalized production for use by and exchange with others, underlies social cohesion at all sociopolitical scales; it is as much a social phenomenon as it is an economic and logistical one. Craft specialization can be studied across cultures and time periods, from myriad theoretical perspectives and in conjunction with discussions of structures and processes of interest to many in the humanities and social sciences: subsistence, the social utility of material culture, political economy, power, sociopolitical organization, exchange, and the creation of meaning and value, among others. Using case studies from around the world, this Element discusses the evidence used to study the economic and social aspects of the organization of production, explores how different environmental, economic, social, and political factors affect the organization of production, examines the social impacts of the organization of production, and demonstrates how participation in specialized economic activities affects producers' lived experience.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
789 kr
Kommande
Specialization, the regularized or institutionalized production for use by and exchange with others, underlies social cohesion at all sociopolitical scales; it is as much a social phenomenon as it is an economic and logistical one. Craft specialization can be studied across cultures and time periods, from myriad theoretical perspectives and in conjunction with discussions of structures and processes of interest to many in the humanities and social sciences: subsistence, the social utility of material culture, political economy, power, sociopolitical organization, exchange, and the creation of meaning and value, among others. Using case studies from around the world, this Element discusses the evidence used to study the economic and social aspects of the organization of production, explores how different environmental, economic, social, and political factors affect the organization of production, examines the social impacts of the organization of production, and demonstrates how participation in specialized economic activities affects producers' lived experience.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2024
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Ancient Maya Economies synthesizes the state of the art across seven components: geographical and historical background, ritual economy, households, specialization, exchange, political economies, and future directions. Other Elements case studies use many of the same components, making it easy to compare and contrast ancient Maya economies with systems of production and consumption in other parts of the world. The time is right for this Elements case because knowledge of ancient Maya economies has undergone a revolution in the last few decades, resulting in a complex panorama of new economic information. Aerial laser scanning has revealed higher amounts of intensive agriculture and research on the ground has turned up better evidence for marketplaces. Maya economies feature specialized production, trade of both bulk goods and luxury goods, close integration with ritual and religion, and a carnival parade of political economies.
- Nyhet
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Massim region of Papua New Guinea has been the focus of intensive ethnographic interest for over a century because of sociocultural practices and maritime economies that connect island populations, including the famed Kula ring. Ethnographic models of Kula have been critiqued as ahistorical and heavily influenced by colonial interventions. This volume explores the long-term history of Massim maritime economies from a predominantly archaeological perspective, but draws on ethnographic, linguistic and biomolecular information. Maritime economies have connected islands for at least 17,000 years, with parallels to historically documented networks emerging over the last 3000 years. The Massim region can be considered as a network of decentralized, micro-world economies that frequently overlapped, were shaped by local value systems, clan affiliations, and defined by strategic advantages of location, natural resources and technologies. Maritime interaction in the Massim shaped cultural and linguistic diversity, providing a comparative case study for maritime economies globally.
- Nyhet
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Massim region of Papua New Guinea has been the focus of intensive ethnographic interest for over a century because of sociocultural practices and maritime economies that connect island populations, including the famed Kula ring. Ethnographic models of Kula have been critiqued as ahistorical and heavily influenced by colonial interventions. This volume explores the long-term history of Massim maritime economies from a predominantly archaeological perspective, but draws on ethnographic, linguistic and biomolecular information. Maritime economies have connected islands for at least 17,000 years, with parallels to historically documented networks emerging over the last 3000 years. The Massim region can be considered as a network of decentralized, micro-world economies that frequently overlapped, were shaped by local value systems, clan affiliations, and defined by strategic advantages of location, natural resources and technologies. Maritime interaction in the Massim shaped cultural and linguistic diversity, providing a comparative case study for maritime economies globally.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
789 kr
Kommande
This Element is about the interacting socio-ecological relationships of a contemporary Aboriginal foraging economy. In the Western Desert of Australia, Martu Aboriginal systems of subsistence, mobility, property, and transmission are manifest as distinct homelands and networks of religious estates. Estates operate as place-based descent groups, maintained in both material egalitarianism (sharing, dispossession, and immediate return) and ritual hierarchy (exclusion, possession, and delayed return). Interwoven in Martu estate-based foraging economies are the ecological relationships that shape the regeneration of their homelands. The Element explores the dynamism and transformations of Martu livelihoods and landscapes, with a special focus on the role of landscape burning, resource use practices, and property regimes in the function of desert ecosystems.
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
237 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Inca Empire (c. 1400-1532) was the largest Indigenous state to develop in the Americas, spanning the extraordinarily rich landscapes of the central Andes. Scholarly approaches to Inca-era economies initially drew on Spanish colonial documents that emphasized royal resource monopolies, labor tribute, and kin-based land tenure. Anthropologists in recent decades have emphasized local economic self-sufficiency and the role of reciprocity in Inca economics. This Element adds to the existing literature by reviewing recent archaeological research in the Inca capital region and different provinces. The material evidence and documents indicate considerable variation in the development and implementation of Inca political economy, reflecting an array of local economic practices that were tailored to different Andean environments. Although Inca economic development downplayed interregional trade, emerging evidence indicates the existence of more specialized trading practices in Inca peripheral regions, some of which persisted under imperial rule.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Inca Empire (c. 1400-1532) was the largest Indigenous state to develop in the Americas, spanning the extraordinarily rich landscapes of the central Andes. Scholarly approaches to Inca-era economies initially drew on Spanish colonial documents that emphasized royal resource monopolies, labor tribute, and kin-based land tenure. Anthropologists in recent decades have emphasized local economic self-sufficiency and the role of reciprocity in Inca economics. This Element adds to the existing literature by reviewing recent archaeological research in the Inca capital region and different provinces. The material evidence and documents indicate considerable variation in the development and implementation of Inca political economy, reflecting an array of local economic practices that were tailored to different Andean environments. Although Inca economic development downplayed interregional trade, emerging evidence indicates the existence of more specialized trading practices in Inca peripheral regions, some of which persisted under imperial rule.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Creation myths in the ancient Middle East served, among other things, as works of political economy, justifying and naturalizing materially intensive ritual practices and their entanglements with broader economic processes and institutions. These rituals were organized according to a common ideology of divine service, which portrayed the gods as an aristocratic leisure class whose material needs were provided by human beings. Resources for divine service were extracted from the productive sectors of society and channeled inward to the temple and palace institutions, where they served to satiate the gods and support their human servants. This Element examines various forms of the economics of divine service, and how they were supported in a selection of myths - Atraḫasis, Enki and Ninmaḫ, and Enūma Eliš from Mesopotamia and the story of the Garden of Eden from the southern Levant (Israel).
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
245 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
Creation myths in the ancient Middle East served, among other things, as works of political economy, justifying and naturalizing materially intensive ritual practices and their entanglements with broader economic processes and institutions. These rituals were organized according to a common ideology of divine service, which portrayed the gods as an aristocratic leisure class whose material needs were provided by human beings. Resources for divine service were extracted from the productive sectors of society and channeled inward to the temple and palace institutions, where they served to satiate the gods and support their human servants. This Element examines various forms of the economics of divine service, and how they were supported in a selection of myths - Atraḫasis, Enki and Ninmaḫ, and Enūma Eliš from Mesopotamia and the story of the Garden of Eden from the southern Levant (Israel).
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
789 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
This Element constitutes a systematic attempt to preliminarily reconstruct the Shang economy based on contemporary archaeological and textual evidence. At the same time, the rapid pace of Chinese archaeological discovery and the increasing deployment of archaeological science means that there is a wealth of new information making a new synthesis both challenging and necessary. This synthesis was written from the perspective that the study of ancient economy necessarily proceeds from the construction of models and the systematic exploration of principal economic components, including their articulation and change over time. Setting the Shang in comparative context with other ancient economies in this series, those principal components are the domestic and institutional economy, specialization, forms of exchange, and diachronic developments. It is hoped that with this organization, comparison with other ancient economies can be more easily made and the significance of the Shang case more clearly seen.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
733 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
This Element revisits the historiographical and archaeological paradigms of Roman rural economies, with a particular focus on the peasant communities of Roman Iberia. Traditionally overshadowed by the dominance of the villa schiavistica model, which centers on large-scale slave-operated agricultural estates, recent interdisciplinary research has unveiled the complexity and persistence of peasant economies. By integrating data from archaeological surveys, rescue excavations, and textual analyses, this volume highlights the significance of dispersed settlements, small-scale farms, and sustainable agrarian strategies that defined the peasant landscape. Case studies from diverse sectors of the Iberian Peninsula demonstrate diverse modes of land use, such as intensive cultivation, crop rotation, and manuring, which contrast with the economic assumptions tied to elite-dominated production models. Furthermore, the author explores Roman peasants' socio-economic structures and adaptive strategies, emphasizing their pivotal role in shaping landscapes. This Element advocates for reexamining Roman peasantries as active and complex agents in ancient history.
Häftad, Engelska, 2025
246 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
This Element revisits the historiographical and archaeological paradigms of Roman rural economies, with a particular focus on the peasant communities of Roman Iberia. Traditionally overshadowed by the dominance of the villa schiavistica model, which centers on large-scale slave-operated agricultural estates, recent interdisciplinary research has unveiled the complexity and persistence of peasant economies. By integrating data from archaeological surveys, rescue excavations, and textual analyses, this volume highlights the significance of dispersed settlements, small-scale farms, and sustainable agrarian strategies that defined the peasant landscape. Case studies from diverse sectors of the Iberian Peninsula demonstrate diverse modes of land use, such as intensive cultivation, crop rotation, and manuring, which contrast with the economic assumptions tied to elite-dominated production models. Furthermore, the author explores Roman peasants' socio-economic structures and adaptive strategies, emphasizing their pivotal role in shaping landscapes. This Element advocates for reexamining Roman peasantries as active and complex agents in ancient history.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
766 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
The Element reconstructs economic developments in the crucial phase of State formation in Mesopotamia, from the 4th to early 3rd millennium BCE, trying to understand how interrelating environmental, social, economic, and political factors in the two main areas of Mesopotamia profoundly changed the structures of societies and transformed the relations between social components, giving rise to increasing inequality and strengthening political institutions. The interrelation between economic changes and state formation and urbanization is analyzed. Mesopotamia represents a foundational case study to understand the processes that transformed the function of economy from being an instrument to satisfy community needs to become a means of producing "wealth" for privileged categories. These processes varied in characteristics and timescales depending on environmental conditions and organizational forms. But wherever they took place, far-reaching changes occurred resulting in emergent hierarchies and new political systems. Reflecting on these changes highlights phenomena still affecting our societies today.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
791 kr
Kommande
Abstract Raymond Firth (1929) published The Economics of the New Zealand Maori, foundational to Economic Anthropology. Surprisingly, no book-length overview has been written since that takes advantage of a century of information from archaeology, Māori history, and contemporary theoretical perspectives. This Element examines profound changes in Māori society over seven centuries from initial colonization through to the early colonial period. This is critical for understanding a mixed economy reliant on hunting, fishing, gathering, and limited horticulture where issues of storage and defense of land were vital. Given the relatively recent first European contact and the vitality of Māori culture and history, a wealth of documentary information about traditional economic practices are available, a situation rare for traditional societies. It focuses on both the household and political economies, as well as exchange and specialization. The Element provides an exceptionally well-documented example of the interplay of economy, warfare, and incipient political centralization.
Häftad, Engelska, 2026
246 kr
Kommande
Abstract Raymond Firth (1929) published The Economics of the New Zealand Maori, foundational to Economic Anthropology. Surprisingly, no book-length overview has been written since that takes advantage of a century of information from archaeology, Māori history, and contemporary theoretical perspectives. This Element examines profound changes in Māori society over seven centuries from initial colonization through to the early colonial period. This is critical for understanding a mixed economy reliant on hunting, fishing, gathering, and limited horticulture where issues of storage and defense of land were vital. Given the relatively recent first European contact and the vitality of Māori culture and history, a wealth of documentary information about traditional economic practices are available, a situation rare for traditional societies. It focuses on both the household and political economies, as well as exchange and specialization. The Element provides an exceptionally well-documented example of the interplay of economy, warfare, and incipient political centralization.