Abstract
Traditional approaches to the study of political economy are flawed in two respects. First, traditional approaches have submerged political economy within a discussion of political development and the evolution of complex society. Second, they have emphasized single dimensions of the economy such as production or distribution of resources as being the basis for political power. Current research has demonstrated that political economies are a mix of many different resource mobilization strategies that crosscut the production, service, and distribution sectors of the society. Archaeologists must attempt to identify this mix of strategies as a first step in reconstructing the structure of prehistoric political economy. Elites strive to control and mobilize resources from as many different sources as possible and invoke a common set of principles in doing so. These principles or components of the political economy are the accumulation, context, matrix control, and ideology principles. They are identified here as common mechanisms of resource creation, manipulation, and expropriation that can be applied to societies at different times and at different levels of organization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References cited
Abrams, E. M. (1987). Economic specialization and construction personnel in Classic period Copan, Honduras.American Antiquity 52: 485–499.
Adams, R. McC. (1981).Heartland of Cities, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Algaze, G. (1989). The Uruk expansion: Cross-cultural exchange in early Mesopotamian civilization.Current Anthropology 32: 571–608.
Algaze, G. (1993).The Uruk World-System, the Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Appadurai, A. (1986). Introduction: Commodities and the politics of value. In Appadurai, A. (ed.),The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Social Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 3–63.
Arnold, J. E. (1992). Complex hunter-gatherer-fishers of prehistoric California: Chiefs, specialists, and maritime adaptations of the Channel Islands.American Antiquity 57: 60–84.
Berdan, F. F., and Anawalt, P. R. (eds.) (1992).The Codex Mendoza, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Blanton, R. E. (1983). Factors underlying the origin and evolution of market systems. In Ortiz, S. (ed.),Economic Anthropology. Topics and Theories, Society for Economic Anthropology, University Press of America, Lanham, MD, pp. 51–66.
Blanton, R. E., and Feinman, G. M. (1984). The Mesoamerican world-system.American Antiquity 86: 673–682.
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., and Finsten, L. (1993).Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions, 2nd ed., Academic Press, New York.
Blitz, J. H. (1993). Big pots for big shots: Feasting and storage in a Mississippian community.American Antiquity 58: 80–96.
Boserup, E. (1965).The Conditions of Agricultural Growth, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Brandt, E. A. (1994). Egalitarianism, hierarchy, and centralization in the Pueblos. In Wills, W. H., and Leonard, R. D. (eds.),The Ancient Southwestern Community, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 9–23.
Brown, J., Kerber, R., and Winters, H. (1990). Trade and the evolution of exchange relations at the beginning of the Mississippian period. In Smith, B. (ed.),The Mississippian Emergence, Smithsonian Press, Washington, DC, pp. 251–280.
Brumfiel, E. M. (1987). Elite and utilitarian crafts in the Aztec state. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Earle, T. K. (eds.),Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 102–118.
Brumfiel, E. M. (1992). Distinguished lecture in archaeology: Breaking and entering the ecosystem—Gender, class, and faction steal the show.American Anthropologist 94: 551–567.
Brumfiel, E. M. (1994). Factional competition and political development in the New World: An introduction. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 3–13.
Brumfiel, E. M., and Earle, T. K. (1987). Specialization, exchange, and complex societies: An introduction. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Earle, T. K. (eds.),Specialization, Exchange, and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 1–9.
Carneiro, R. L. (1970). A theory of the origin of the state.Science 169: 733–738.
Chang, K. C. (1977).The Archaeology of Ancient China, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Chase-Dunn, C., and Hall, T. D. (eds.) (1991).Core/periphery Relations in Precapitalist Worlds, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Chayanov, A. V. (1966).The Theory of Peasant Economy, American Economic Association, Homewood, IL.
Childe, V. G. (1942).What Happened in Prehistory, Penguin, Harmondworth, England.
Childe, V. G. (1950). The urban revolution.Town Planning Review 21: 3–17.
Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (1991). Introduction. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 1–29.
Clark, J. E., and Blake, M. (1994). The power of prestige: Competitive generosity and the emergence of rank societies in lowland Mesoamerica. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 17–30.
Clark, J. E., and Parry, W. J. (1990). Craft specialization and cultural complexity.Research in Economic Anthropology 12: 289–346.
Cobb, C. R. (1991). Social reproduction and the “longue duree” in the prehistory of the midcontinental United States. In Preucel, R. (ed.),Processual and Postprocessual Archaeologies, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 168–182.
Cobb, C. R. (1993). Archaeological approaches to the political economy of nonstratified societies.Archaeological Method and Theory 5: 43–100.
Conrad, G. W., and Demarest, A. A. (1984).Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Cordell, L. S. (1984).Prehistory of the Southwest, Academic Press, New York.
Costin, C. L. (1991). Craft specialization: Issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.),Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 1–56.
Costin, C. L. (1993). Textiles, women, and political economy in late prehispanic Peru.Research in Economic Anthropology 14: 3–28.
Cowgill, G. L. (1975). On causes and consequences of ancient and modern population change.American Anthropologist 77: 505–525.
Crown, P. L. (1991). The role of exchange and interaction in Salt-Gila Basin Hohokam prehistory. In Gumerman, G. J. (ed.),Exploring the Hohokam, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 383–415.
Crown, P. L., and Judge, W. J. (ed.) (1991).Chaco and Hohokam, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.
Curtin, P. D. (1984).Cross-Cultural Trade in World History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Dalton, G. (1977). Aboriginal economies in stateless societies. In Earle, T. K., and Ericson, J. E. (eds.),Exchange Systems in Prehistory, Academic Press, New York, pp. 191–212.
D'Altroy, T. N., and Bishop, R. L. (1990). The provincial organization of Inka ceramic production.American Antiquity 55: 120–138.
D'Altroy, T. N., and Earle, T. K. (1985). Staple finance, wealth finance, and storage in the Inca political economy.Current Anthropology 26: 187–206.
Demarest, A. A. (1989). Ideology and evolutionism in American archaeology: Looking beyond the economic base. In Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (ed.),Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 89–102.
Dillehay, T. D. (1992). Keeping outsiders out: Public ceremony, resource rights, and hierarchy in historic and contemporary Mapuche society. In Lange, F. W. (ed.),Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, DC, pp. 379–422.
Dreiss, M. L., and Brown, D. O. (1989). Obsidian exchange patterns in Belize. In McAnany, P. A., and Isaac, B. L. (eds.),Prehistoric Maya Economies of Belize, Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement 4, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 57–90.
Drennan, R. D. (1984). Long-distance transport costs in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.American Antiquity 86: 105–112.
Drucker, P., and Heizer, R. F. (1967).To Make My Name Good. A Reexamination of the Southern Kwakiutl Potlatch, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Earle, T. K. (1977). A reappraisal of redistribution: Complex Hawaiian chiefdoms. In Earle, T. K., and Ericson, J. E. (eds.),Exchange Systems in Prehistory, Academic Press, New York, pp. 213–229.
Earle, T. K. (1987). Chiefdoms in archaeological and ethnohistorical perspective.Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 279–308.
Earle, T. K. (1991). Property rights and the evolution of chiefdoms. In Earle, T. K. (ed.),Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 71–99.
Earle, T. K., and D'Altroy, T. N. (1982). Storage facilities and state finance in the upper Mantaro valley, Peru. In Ericson, J. E., and Earle, T. K. (eds.),Contexts of Prehistoric Exchange, Academic Press, New York, pp. 265–290.
Edens, C. M. (1992). Dynamics of trade in the ancient Mesopotamian “world-system”.American Anthropologist 94: 118–139.
Engels, F. (1969). Karl Marx, a contribution to the critique of political economy. InKarl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works, Progress, Moscow, Vol. 1, pp. 507–516.
Feinman, G., and Neitzel, J. (1984). Too many types: An overview of sedentary prestate societies in the Americas. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.),Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 7: 39–102.
Ferguson, J. (1992). The cultural topography of wealth: Commodity paths and the structure of property in rural Lesotho.American Anthropologist 94: 55–73.
Ferguson, R. B. (ed.) (1984).Warfare, Culture, and Environment, Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Fernea, R. A. (1970).Shaykh and Effendi. Changing Patterns of Authority Among the El Shabana of Southern Iraq, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fish, P. R., and Fish, S. K. (1991). Hohokam political and social organization. In Gumerman, G. (ed.),Exploring the Hohokam, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 151–175.
Flannery, K. V. (1972). The cultural evolution of civilizations.Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3: 399–426.
Flannery, K. V., and Coe, M. D. (1968). Social and economic systems in Formative Mesoamerica. In Binford, S., and Binford, L. (eds.),New Perspectives in Archaeology, Aldine, Chicago, pp. 267–284.
Fowler, W. R. (1989).The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations. The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Frank, A. G. (1993). The Bronze Age world-system and its cycles.Current Anthropology 34: 383–430.
Friedman, J. (1982). Castrophe and continuity in social evolution. In Renfrew, C. (ed.),Theory and Explanation in Archaeology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 175–196.
Friedman, J., and Rowlands, M. J. (1977). Notes toward an epigenetic model of ‘civilization.’ In Friedman, J., and Rowlands, M. J. (eds.),The Evolution of Social Systems, Duckworth Press, London, pp. 201–276.
Gelb, I. J. (1979). Household and family in ancient Mesopotamia. In Lipinski, E. (ed.),State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East, Departement Orientalistiek, Leuven, pp. 1–97.
Gilman, A. (1987). Unequal development in copper age Iberia. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Earle, T. K. (eds.),Specialization, Exchange, and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 22–29.
Godelier, M. (1978). Economy and religion: An evolutionary optical illusion. In Friedman, J., and Rowlands, M. J. (eds.),The Evolution of Social Systems, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, pp. 3–11.
Gregory, C. A. (1981). A conceptual analysis of a non-capitalist gift economy.Cambridge Journal of Economics 5: 119–135.
Guyer, J. I. (1986). Indigenous currencies and the history of marriage payments. A case study from Cameroon.Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 26: 577–610.
Hakansson, N. T. (1994). Grain, cattle, and power: Social processes of intensive cultivation and exchange in precolonial Western Kenya.Journal of Anthropological Research 50: 249–276.
Hall, T. D., and Chase-Dunn, C. (1993). The world-systems perspective and archaeology: Forward into the past.Journal of Archaeological Research 1: 121–143.
Halstead, P. (1989). The economy has a normal surplus: Economic stability and social change among early farming communities of Thessaly, Greece. In Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (eds.),Bad Year Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 68–80.
Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (1982). A friend in need is a friend indeed: Social storage and the origins of social ranking. In Renfrew, C., and Shennan, S. (eds.),Ranking, Resource, and Exchange, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 92–99.
Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (1989). Introduction: Cultural responses to risk and uncertainty. In Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (eds.),Bad Year Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 1–7.
Hammell, E. A., and Howell, N. (1987). Research in population and culture: An evolutionary framework.Current Anthropology 28: 141–160.
Harris, M. (1959). The economy has no surplus.American Anthropologist 61: 385–399.
Harris, M. (1979).Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture, Vintage Books, New York.
Hatch, J. W., Michels, J. W., Stevenson, C. M., Scheetz, B. E., and Geidel, R. A. (1990). Hopewell obsidian studies: Behavioral implications of recent sourcing and dating research.American Antiquity 55: 461–479.
Haury, E. W. (1976).The Hohokam Desert Farmers and Craftsmen: Excavations at Snaketown 1964–1965, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Haviland, W. A., and Moholy-Nagy, H. (1992). Distinguishing the high and mighty from the hoi polloi at Tikal, Guatemala. In Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (eds.),Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 50–60.
Hayden, B. D. (1990). Nimrods, piscators, pluckers, and planters: The emergence of food production.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 31–69.
Hayden, B. D., and Gargett, R. (1990). Big man, big heart? A Mesoamerican view of the emergence of complex society.Ancient Mesoamerica 1: 3–20.
Helms, M. W. (1979).Ancient Panama, Chiefs in Search of Power, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Helms, M. W. (1993).Craft and the Kingly Ideal, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Hicks, F. (1984). Rotational labor and urban development in prehispanic Tetzcoco. In Harvey, H., and Prem, H. (eds.),Explorations in Ethnohistory: Indians of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 147–174.
Hicks, F. (1991). Gift and tribute: Relations of dependency in Aztec Mexico, In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 199–213.
Hirth, K. G. (ed.) (1984).Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Hirth, K. G. (1992). Interregional exchange as elite behavior: An evolutionary perspective. In Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (eds.),Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 18–29.
Hudson, C. M. (1976).The Southeastern Indians, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Hunt, R. C. (1988). Size and the structure of authority in canal irrigation systems.Journal of Anthropological Research 44: 335–355.
Jacobs, J. (1969).The Economy of Cities, Random House, New York.
Joffe, A. H. (1995). Parallelisms and divergences in a third millennium periphery: The case of the northern and southern Levant.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (in press).
Johnson, A. W., and Earle, T. K. (1987).The Evolution of Human Societies, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Judge, W. J., Gillespie, W. B., Lekson, S. H., and Toll, W.H. (1981).Tenth Century Developments in Chaco Canyon, Archaeological Society of New Mexico Anthropological Papers, No. 6.
Julien, C. (1982). Inca decimal administration in the Lake Titicaca region. In Collier, G. A., Rosaldo, R. I., and Wirth, J. D. (eds.),The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800, Academic Press, New York, pp. 119–151.
Kelley, J. C., and Kelley, E. (1975). An alternative hypothesis for the explanation of Anasazi culture history. In Frisbie, T. (ed.),Collected Papers in Honor of Florence Hawley Ellis. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico2: 178–223.
Kemp, B. J. (1972). Temple and town in ancient Egypt. In Ucko, P., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. (eds.),Man, Settlement, and Urbanism, Schenkman, Cambridge, MA, pp. 657–680.
Kipp Smith, R., and Schortman, E. M. (1989). The political impact of trade in chiefdoms.American Anthropologist 91: 370–385.
Kirch, P. V. (1989).The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Kirch, P. V. (1991). Prehistoric exchange in western Melanesia.Annual Review of Anthropology 20: 141–165.
Kobishchanov, I. M. (1987). The phenomenon of Gafol and its transformation. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Dynamics, Studies in Human Society, E.J. Brill, Leiden, pp. 108–128.
Kochakova, N. B. (1978). Yoruba city-states (at the time of the nineteenth century). In Claessen, H. J. M., and Skalnick, P. (eds.),The Early State, Mouton, The Hague, pp. 495–510.
Kohl, P. L. (1987). State formation: Useful concept or Idée Fixe? In Patterson, T. C., and Gailey, C. W. (eds.),Power Relations and State Formation, American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 27–34.
Kohl, P. L. (1989). The use and abuse of world-systems theory: The case of the “pristine” West Asian state. In Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (ed.),Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 218–240.
Kohler, T. A. (1992). Field houses, villages, and the tragedy of the commons in the early northern Anasazi Southwest.American Antiquity 57: 617–635.
La Lone, D. E. (1982). The Inca as a nonmarket economy: Supply on command versus supply and demand. In Ericson, J. E., and Earle, T. K. (eds.),Contexts of Prehistoric Exchange, Academic Press, New York, pp. 292–316.
Lansing, J. S. (1991).Priests and Programmers. Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Leach, E. R. (1961).Pul Eliya. A Village in Ceylon, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Lleras Perez, R., and Langebaek Rueda, C. (1987). Producción agrícola y desarrollo sociopolítico entre los Chibchas de la Cordillera Oriental y Serrania de Merida. In Drennan, R. D., and Uribe, C. A. (eds.),Chiefdoms in the Americas, University Press of America, Lanham, MA, pp. 251–269.
MacGaffey, W. (1977). Economic and social dimensions of Kongo slavery (Zaire). In Miers, S., and Kopytoff, I. (eds.),Slavery in Africa, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 235–257.
Manzanilla, L. (1992). The economic organization of the Teotihuacan priesthood: Hypotheses and considerations, In Berlo, J. C. (ed.),Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, pp. 321–338.
Marcus, G. (1983).Elites: Ethnographic Issues, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Marx, K. (1964).Pre-capitalist Economic Foundations, Norton, New York.
McKillop, H., and Healy, P. F. (1989).Coastal Maya Trade, Occasional Papers in Anthropology, No. 8, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.
Meggitt, M. J. (1967). The pattern of leadership among the Mae Enga of New Guinea.Anthropological Forum 2: 20–35.
Miers, S., and Kopytoff, I. (eds.) (1977).Slavery in Africa, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Millon, R. (1973).Urbanization at Teotihuacan, Mexico. The Teotihuacan Map, Vol. 1, Part 1, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Mitchell, D., and Lleland, D. (1988). Archaeology and the study of Northwest coast economies. In Isaac, B. L. (ed.),Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement 3, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 293–351.
Morrison, K. D. (1994). The intensification of production: Archaeological approaches.Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 111–159.
Moseley, M. E. (1992).The Incas and their Ancestors, Thames and Hudson, London.
Muñera Bermudez, L. (1985).Un Taller de Ceramica Ritual en la Ciudadela, Teotihuacan, Unpublished thesis, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.
Murra, J. V. (1980).The Economic Organization of the Inka State, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
Netting, R. McC. (1972). Sacred power and centralization: Aspects of political adaptation in Africa. In Spooner, B. (ed.),Population Growth: Anthropological Implications, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 219–244.
Netting, R. McC. (1990). Population, permanent agriculture, and polities: Unpacking the evolutionary portmanteau. In Upham, S. (ed.),The Evolution of Political Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 21–61.
Netting, R. McC. (1993).Smallholders, Households, Farm Families, and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Oppenheim, A. L. (1957). A bird's-eye view of Mesopotamian economic history. In Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M., and Pearson, H. W. (eds.),Trade and Market in the Early Empires, Free Press, Glencoe, IL, pp. 27–37.
Orlove, B. S., and Rutz, H. J. (1989). Thinking about consumption: A social economy approach. In Rutz, H. J., and Orlove, B. S. (eds.),The Social Economy of Consumption, University Press of America, Lanham, MA, pp. 1–57.
O'Shea, J. M. (1984).Mortuary Variability: An Archaeological Investigation, Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
O'Shea, J. M. (1989). The role of wild resources in small-scale agricultural systems: Tales from the lakes and the plains. In Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (eds.),Bad Year Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 57–67.
Peebles, C. S. (1971). Moundville and surrounding sites: Some structural considerations of mortuary practices. II. In Brown, J. (ed.),Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, SAA Memoirs, No. 25, pp. 68–91.
Pendergast, D. M. (1992). Noblesse oblige: The elites of Altun Ha and Lamanai, Belize. In Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (eds.),Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 61–79.
Peregrine, P. N. (1992).Mississippian Evolution: A World-Systems Perspective, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.
Pfaff-Czarnecak, J. (1991). State and community: Changing relations of production after the unification of Nepal. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 231–263.
Polanyi, K. (1957). Marketless trading in Hammurabi's time. In Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M., and Pearson, H. W. (eds.),Trade and Market in the Early Empires, Free Press, Glencoe, IL, pp. 12–26.
Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M., and Pearson, H. W. (1957).Trade and Market in the Early Empires, Free Press, Glencoe, IL.
Pollard, H. P. (1993).Tariacuari's Legacy. The Prehispanic Tarascan State, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Postgate, J. N. (1992).Early Mesopotamia. Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, Routledge, London.
Potts, T. F. (1993). Patterns of trade in third-millennium BC Mesopotamia and Iran.World Archaeology 24: 379–401.
Pozorski, T. G., and Pozorski, S. G. (1987). Chavin, the Early Horizon, and the Initial period. In Haas, J. (ed.),The Origins and Development of the Andean State, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 36–46.
Price, B. J. (1977). Shifts in production and organization: A cluster inter-action model.Current Anthropology 18: 209–234.
Price, B. J. (1982). Cultural materialism: A theoretical review.American Antiquity 47: 709–741.
Price, D. H. (1994). Wittfogel's neglected hydraulic/hydroagricultural distinction.Journal of Anthropological Research 50: 187–204.
Rathje, W. L. (1971). The origins and development of lowland Classic Maya civilization.American Antiquity 36: 275–285.
Renfrew, C. (1986). Introduction: Peer polity interaction and socio-political change. In Renfrew, C., and Cherry, J. F. (eds.),Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-Political Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 1–18.
Renfrew, C., and Cherry, J. F. (eds.) (1986).Peer Policy Interaction and Socio-Political Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Renger, J. (1979). Interaction of temple, palace, and “private enterprise” in the old Babylonian economy. In Lipinski, E. (ed.),State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East, Department Orientalistiek, Leuven, pp. 249–256.
Ringle, W., and Andrews, E. W. (1988). Formative residences at Komchen, Yucatan, Mexico. In Wilk, R. R., and Ashmore, W. (eds.),House and Household in the Mesoamerican Past, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 171–197.
Roscoe, P. B. (1993). Practice and political centralization: A new approach to political evolution.Current Anthropology 34: 111–140.
Roseberry, W. (1988). Political economy.Annual Review of Anthropology 17: 161–185.
Roseberry, W. (1989).Anthropologies and Histories: Essays in Culture, History, and Political Economy, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Rouse, I. (1948). The Arawak. In Steward, J. H. (ed.),Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 4, the Circum-Caribbean Tribes, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, DC, pp. 507–546.
Rowlands, M. J. (1979). Local and long distance trade and incipient state formation on the Bemenda plateau in the late 19th century.Paideuma 25: 1–19.
Rowlands, M. J. (1980). Kinship, alliance, and exchange in the European Bronze Age. In Barrett, J., and Bradley, J. (eds.),Settlement and Society in Britain's Later Bronze Age, British Archaeological Report No. 83, pp. 15–55.
Roys, R. L. (1957).The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 613, Washington, DC.
Sahlins, M. D. (1963). Poor man, rich man, big man, chief: Political types in Melanesia and Polynesia.Comparative Studies in Society and History 5: 285–303.
Sahlins, M. D. (1972).Stone Age Economics, Aldine, Chicago.
Sanders, W. T., and Nichols, D. L. (1988). Ecological theory and cultural evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca.Current Anthropology 29: 33–80.
Sanders, W. T., and Price, B. J. (1968).Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization, Random House, New York.
Santley, R. S., and Alexander, R. (1992). The political economy of core-periphery systems. In Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.),Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction, Plenum, New York, pp. 23–59.
Scarborough, V. L., and Isaac, B. L. (1993). Economic aspects of water management in the prehispanic New World.Research in Economic Anthropology, Suppl. 7.
Schmidt, P. (1978).Historical Archaeology. A Structural Approach in an African Culture, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.
Schortman, E. M. (1989). Interregional interaction in prehistory.American Antiquity 54: 52–65.
Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.) (1992).Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction, Plenum, New York.
Schwartz, G. M., and Curvers, H. H. (1992). Tell al-Raqa'i 1989 and 1990: Further investigations at a small rural site of early urban Mesopotamia.American Journal of Archaeology 96: 397–419.
Service, E. R. (1962).Primitive Social Organization, Random House, New York.
Shannon, T. R. (1989).An Introduction to the World-System Perspective, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Sheets, P., Hirth, K. G., Lange, F., Stross, F., Asaro, F., and Michel, H. (1990). Obsidian sources and elemental analyses of artifacts in southern Mesoamerica and the northern Intermediate Area.American Antiquity 55: 144–158.
Sinopoli, C. (1988). The organization of craft production at Vijayanagara, South India.American Anthropologist 90: 580–597.
Smith, A. (1791).An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, J. J. Tourneisen and J. L. Legrand, London.
Smith, A., and David, N. (1995). The production of space and the house of Xidi Sukur.Current Anthropology 36: 441–471.
Smith, M. E. (1991). The ABCs of political economy. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 31–73.
Smith, P. E. L., and Young, T. C. (1972). The evolution of early agriculture and culture in greater Mesopotamia: A trial model. In Spooner, B. (ed.),Population Growth: Anthropological Implications, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 1–59.
Southall, A. (1991). The segmentary state: From the imaginary to the material means of production. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 75–96.
Spencer, C. S. (1982).The Cuicatlan Cañada and Monte Alban, Academic Press, New York.
Spencer, C. S. (1990). On the tempo and mode of state formation: Neoevolutionism reconsidered.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 1–30.
Spencer, C. S. (1994). Factional ascendance, dimensions of leadership, and the development of centralized authority. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 31–43.
Spielmann, K. A. (ed.) (1991).Farmers, Hunters, and Colonists: Interaction between the Southwest and the Southern Plains, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Stein, G. (1994a). Introduction part II. The organizational dynamics of complexity in greater Mesopotamia. In Stein, G., and Rothman, M. S. (eds.),Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 18, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 11–22.
Stein, G. (1994b). Economy, ritual, and power in Ubaid Mesopotamia. In Stein, G., and Rothman, M. S. (eds.),Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 18, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 35–46.
Stein, G., and Blackman, M. J. (1993). The organizational context of specialized craft production in early Mesopotamian states.Research in Economic Anthropology 14: 29–59.
Steponaitis, V. P. (1990). Contrasting patterns of Mississippian development. In Earle, T. K. (ed.),Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 193–228.
Steward, J. H. (1949). Cultural causality and law: A trial formulation of the development of early civilizations.American Anthropologist 51: 1–27.
Strathern, A. (1971).The Rope of Moka, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Sumner, W. (1994). The evolution of tribal society in the southern Zagros Mountains, Iran. In Stein, G., and Rothman, M. S. (eds.),Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 18, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 47–65.
Swanton, J. R. (1946).The Indians of the Southeastern United States, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 137.
Terray, E. (1974). Long-distance exchange and the formation of the State: The case of the Abron Kingdom of Gyaman.Economy and Society 3: 315–345.
Testart, A. (1982). The significance of food storage among hunter-gatherers.Current Anthropology 23: 523–537.
Trigger, B. G. (1990). Monumental architecture: A thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behavior.World Archaeology 22: 119–131.
Trigger, B. G. (1993).Early Civilizations. Ancient Egypt in Context, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo.
Tymowski, M. (1991). Wolof economy and political organization: The West African coast in the mid-fifteenth century. In Claessen, H. J. M., and van de Velde, P. (eds.),Early State Economics, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 131–142.
Wallerstein, I. M. (1974).The Modern World-System, Vol. 1. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Academic Press, New York.
Webster, G. S. (1990). Labor control and emergent stratification in prehistoric Europe.Current Anthropology 31: 337–366.
Weiner, A. B. (1976).Women of Value, Men of Renown, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Weiss, H., Courty, M. A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, F., Senior, L., Meadow, R., and Curnow, A. (1993). The genesis and collapse of third millennium North Mesopotamian civilization.Science 261: 995–1004.
Welch, P. D. (1991).Moundville's Economy, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Wheeler, R. E. M. (1966).Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Wiber, M. (1993).Politics, Property, and Law in the Philippine Uplands, Wilfrid Laurier University Books, Waterloo, Ontario.
Wittfogel, K. A. (1957).Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Wittfogel, K. A. (1972). The hydraulic approach to pre-Spanish Mesoamerica. In MacNeish, R. S. (ed.),The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, University of Texas Press, Austin, Vol. 4, pp. 59–80.
Wolf, E. R. (1982).Europe and the People Without History, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Wright, H. T. (1994). Prestate political formations. In Sanders, W. T., Wright, H. T., and Adams, R. McC. (eds.),On the Evolution of Complex Societies. Essays in Honor of Harry Hoijer, Udena Press, Malibu, CA, pp. 41–77.
Bibliography of recent literature
Aerts, E., and Klengel, H., (eds.) (1990).The Town as Regional Economic Centre in the Ancient Near East, Leuven University, Leuven.
Algaze, G. (1993). Expansionary dynamics of some early pristine states.American Anthropologist 95: 304–333.
Anderson, D. G. (1994). Factional competition and the political evolution of Mississippian chiefdoms in the southeastern United States. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 61–76.
Arnold, J. (1991). Transformation of a regional economy: Sociopolitical evolution and the production of valuables in southern California.Antiquity 65: 953–962.
Barker, A. W., and Pauketat, T. R. (eds.) (1992).Lords of the Southeast: Social Inequality and the Native Elites of Southeastern North America, Archaeological Papers, No. 3, American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.
Berdan, F. F. (1986). Prehispanic background of colonial political and economic organization in central Mexico. In Spores, R. (ed.),Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 4. Ethnohistory, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 35–54.
Berdan, F. F. (1987). The economics of Aztec luxury trade and tribute. In Boone, E. H. (ed.),The Aztec Templo Major, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, pp. 161–183.
Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.) (1994).Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Cameron, C. (1991). Structure abandonment in villages.Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 155–194.
Champion, T. C. (ed.) (1989).Centre and Periphery: Comparative Studies in Archaeology, One World Archaeology, No. 11, Unwin Hyman, London.
Charlton, C. O., Charlton, T. H., and Nichols, D. L. (1993). Aztec household-based craft production: Archaeological evidence from the city-state of Otumba, Mexico. In Santley, R. S., and Hirth, K. G. (eds.),Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 147–171.
Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (eds.) (1992).Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Cherry, J. F. (ed.) (1992). Archaeology of empires.World Archaeology 23: Special Issue.
Costin, C. L., and Earle, T. K. (1989). Status distinction and legitimation of power as reflected in changing patterns of consumption in late prehispanic Peru.American Antiquity 54: 691–714.
D'Altroy, T. N., and Hastorf, C. A. (1994).Empire and Domestic Economy, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Dietler, M. D. (1990). Driven by drink: The role of drinking in the political economy and the case of early Iron Age France.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 352–406.
Doyle, M. W. (1986).Empires, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Drennan, R. D., and Uribe, C. A. (eds.) (1987).Chiefdoms in the Americas, University Press of America, Lanham, MD.
Drennan, R. D., Fitzgibbons, P. T., and Dehn, H. (1990). Imports and exports in Classic Mesoamerican political economy: The Tehuacan Valley and the Teotihuacan obsidian industry.Research in Economic Anthropology 12: 177–199.
Duncan-Jones, R. (1990).Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Earle, T. K. (ed.) (1991).Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Earle, T. K. (1994). Wealth finance in the Inka empire: Evidence from the Calchaqui Valley.American Antiquity 59: 443–470.
Earle, T. K., and D'Altroy, T. N. (1989). The political economy of the Inka empire: The archaeology of power and finance. In Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (ed.),Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 183–204.
Edens, C. M., and Kohl, P. L. (1993). Trade and world-systems in Early Bronze Age western Asia. In Scarre, C., and Healy, E. (eds.),Trade and Exchange in Prehistoric Europe: Proceedings of a Conference held at the University of Bristol, April 1992, Bristol Classical Press, Bristol.
Feinman, G. M. (1991). Demography, surplus, and inequality: Early political formations in highland Mesoamerica. In Earle, T. K. (ed.),Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 229–262.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (1991). The Monte Albán state: A diachronic perspective on an ancient core and its periphery. In Chase-Dunn, C., and Hall, T. D. (eds.),Core/Periphery Relations in Precapitalist Worlds, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 240–276.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (1993). Shell-ornament production in Ejutla: Implications for highland-coastal interaction in ancient Oaxaca.Ancient Mesoamerica 4: 103–119.
Fowler, W. R. (ed.) (1991).The Formation of Complex Society in Southwestern Mesoamerica, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Fox, J. W. (1994). Conclusions: Moietal opposition, segmentation, and factionalism in New World political arenas. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 199–206.
Halstead, P., and O'Shea, J. M. (eds.) (1989).Bad Year Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Hastorf, C. A. (1990). The effect of the Inka state on Sausa agricultural production and crop consumption.American Antiquity 55: 262–290.
Hastorf, C. A. (1992).Agriculture and the Onset of Political Inequality Before the Inka, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Hastorf, C. A., and Johannessen, S. (1993). Pre-Hispanic political change and the role of maize in the central Andes of Peru.American Anthropologist 95: 115–138.
Helms, M. W. (1988).Ulysses' Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power, Knowledge, and Geographical Distance, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Helms, M. W. (1992). Long-distance contacts, elite aspirations, and the Age of Discovery in cosmological context. In Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (eds.),Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction, Plenum, New York, pp. 157–174.
Helms, M. W. (1994). Chiefdom rivalries, control, and external contacts in lower Central America. In Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (eds.),Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 55–60.
Hodge, M. G., and Smith, M. E. (eds.) (1994).Economies and Polities in the Aztec Realm, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, Albany.
Hosler, D., Lechtman, H., and Holm, O. (1990).Axe-Monies and Their Relatives, Dumbarton Oaks Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, No. 30, Washington, DC.
Knapp, A. B. (1990). Production, location, and interaction in Bronze Age Cyprus.Current Anthropology 31: 147–176.
Knapp, A. B. (1990). Ethnicity, entrepreneurship and exchange: Mediterranean inter-island relations in the Late Bronze Age.Annual of the British School at Athens 85: 115–153.
Knapp, A. B. (1991). Spice, drugs, grain and grog: Organic goods in Bronze Age East Mediterranean trade. In Gale, N. H. (ed.),Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, Vol. 90, Paul Astroms Forlag, Jonsered, pp. 21–68.
Kosse, K. (1994). The evolution of large, complex groups: A hypothesis.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 35–50.
Kurtz, D. V. (1987). The economics of urbanization and state formation at Teotihuacan.Current Anthropology 28: 329–353.
Lange, F. W. (ed.) (1992).Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.
Manzanilla, L. R. (ed.) (1987).Studies in the Neolithic and Urban Revolution, the V. Gordon Childe Colloquium, Mexico, 1986, BAR International Series, No. 349, Oxford.
McGuire, R. H. (1992).A Marxist Archaeology, Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
McGuire, R. H., and Paynter, R. (eds.) (1991).The Archaeology of Inequality, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Moseley, M. E., and Cordy-Collins, A. (eds.) (1990).The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.
Oates, J. (1993). Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennium BC: New evidence from northern Mesopotamia.World Archaeology 24: 403–422.
Patterson, T. C. (1990). Processes in the formation of ancient world-systems.Dialectical Anthropology 15: 1–18.
Pollard, H. P. (1987). The political economy of prehispanic Tarascan metallurgy.American Antiquity 52: 741–752.
Renger, J. (1990). Different economic spheres in the urban economy of ancient Mesopotamia: Traditional solidarity, redistribution, and market elements as the means of access to the necessities of life. In Aerts, E., and Klengel, H., (eds.),The Town as Regional Economic Centre in the Ancient Near East, Leuven University, Leuven, pp. 20–28.
Rosenberg, M. (1994). Patterns, process, and hierarchy in the evolution of culture.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 307–340.
Rothman, M. S. (1994). Sealings as a control mechanism in prehistory: Tepe Gawra IX, X, and VIII. In Stein, G., and Rothman, M. S. (eds.),Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, Monographs in World Archaeology No. 18, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 103–120.
Saitta, D. J. (1994). Agency, class, and archaeological interpretation.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 201–227.
Santley, R. S. (1993). Late Formative period society at Loma Torremote: A consideration of the redistribution vs. the great provider models as a basis for the emergence of complexity in the Basin of Mexico. In Santley, R. S., and Hirth, K. G. (eds.),Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 67–86.
Schortman, E. M., and Urban, P. A. (1987). Modeling interregional interaction in prehistory.Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 11: 37–95.
Schreiber, K. (1992).Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
Schwartz, G. M. (1994). Before Ebla: Models of pre-state political organization in Syria and northern Mesopotamia. In Stein, G., and Rothman, M. S. (eds.),Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 18, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 153–174.
Stanish, C. (1992).Ancient Andean Political Economy, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Swartz, G. M., and Falconer, S. E. (1994).Archaeological Views from the Countryside, Village Communities in Early Complex Societies, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Upham, S. (ed.) (1982).Politics and Power: An Economic and Political History of the Western Pueblos, Academic Press, New York.
Voorhies, B. (ed.) (1989).Ancient Trade and Tribute: Economies of the Soconusco Region of Mesoamerica, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Wattenmaker, P. (1987). Town and village economies in an early state society.Paléorient 13: 113–122.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hirth, K.G. Political economy and archaeology: Perspectives on exchange and production. J Archaeol Res 4, 203–239 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02228881
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02228881