The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire - Rilegato

Flannery, Kent; Marcus, Joyce

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0674064690 ISBN 13: 9780674064690

Casa editrice: Harvard Univ Pr, 2012

Riassunto

Our early ancestors lived in small groups and worked actively to preserve social equality. As they created larger societies, however, inequality rose, and by 2500 bce truly egalitarian societies were on the wane. InThe Creation of Inequality, Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus demonstrate that this development was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables. Instead, inequality resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group.

A few societies allowed talented and ambitious individuals to rise in prestige while still preventing them from becoming a hereditary elite. But many others made high rank hereditary, by manipulating debts, genealogies, and sacred lore. At certain moments in history, intense competition among leaders of high rank gave rise to despotic kingdoms and empires in the Near East, Egypt, Africa, Mexico, Peru, and the Pacific.

Drawing on their vast knowledge of both living and prehistoric social groups, Flannery and Marcus describe the changes in logic that create larger and more hierarchical societies, and they argue persuasively that many kinds of inequality can be overcome by reversing these changes, rather than by violence.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"This provocative work, likely to become an important contribution to the literature of social and political anthropology, will be of interest both to scholars in the field and to anthropology and archaeology enthusiasts seeking understanding of the development and perpetuation of inequality in human societies." --Elizabeth Salt, Library Journal, 1st June 2012

"These two examples illustrate the vale of an approach integrating social anthropology with archaeology. The Creation of Inequality contains many other insights and will reward a reader who is not afraid to do some work." --Peter Turchin, TLS, 8th March, 2013

L'autore:

Kent Flannery is James B. Griffin Distinguished University Professor of AnthropologicalArchaeology and Curator, Environmental Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Harvard Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0674064690
• ISBN 13: 9780674064690
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 631