Economic inequality is fueled by population scale, land-limited production, and settlement hierarchies across the archaeological record DOI Creative Commons
Timothy A. Kohler, Amy Bogaard, Scott G. Ortman

et al.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 122(16)

Published: April 14, 2025

Defining wealth broadly to include in people, relational connections, and material possessions, we examine the prehistory of inequality at level residential units using consistent proxy Gini coefficients calculated across areas contemporaneous units. In a sample >1,100 sites > 47,000 spanning >10,000 y, persistent typically lags onset plant cultivation by more than millennium. It accompanies landscape modifications subsistence practices which land (rather labor) limits production, growth hierarchies settlement size. are markedly higher through time settlements or near top such hierarchies; not enmeshed these systems remain relatively egalitarian even long after animal domestication. We infer that some households top-ranked were able exploit network effects, agglomeration opportunities, (eventually) political leverage provided effectively others, likely boosted efficient intergenerational transmission resources increased sedentism made common. Since population is associated with sedentism, land-limited appearance hierarchies, it deeply implicated postdomestication rise inequality. Governance mediate degree inequality, as do technical innovations use animals for portage, horseback riding, development iron smelting.

Language: Английский

Introducing the Special Feature on housing differences and inequality over the very long term DOI Creative Commons
Timothy A. Kohler, Amy Bogaard, Scott G. Ortman

et al.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 122(16)

Published: April 14, 2025

Language: Английский

Citations

4
Economic inequality is fueled by population scale, land-limited production, and settlement hierarchies across the archaeological record DOI Creative Commons
Timothy A. Kohler, Amy Bogaard, Scott G. Ortman

et al.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 122(16)

Published: April 14, 2025

Defining wealth broadly to include in people, relational connections, and material possessions, we examine the prehistory of inequality at level residential units using consistent proxy Gini coefficients calculated across areas contemporaneous units. In a sample >1,100 sites > 47,000 spanning >10,000 y, persistent typically lags onset plant cultivation by more than millennium. It accompanies landscape modifications subsistence practices which land (rather labor) limits production, growth hierarchies settlement size. are markedly higher through time settlements or near top such hierarchies; not enmeshed these systems remain relatively egalitarian even long after animal domestication. We infer that some households top-ranked were able exploit network effects, agglomeration opportunities, (eventually) political leverage provided effectively others, likely boosted efficient intergenerational transmission resources increased sedentism made common. Since population is associated with sedentism, land-limited appearance hierarchies, it deeply implicated postdomestication rise inequality. Governance mediate degree inequality, as do technical innovations use animals for portage, horseback riding, development iron smelting.

Language: Английский

Citations

3