Abstract
Even a moment’s reflection on the daily news informs us of the powerful ability of religion to shape and transform the world in which we live, whether it is a war waged for religious purposes or the deliberations of a local school board. But when it comes to thinking about a more distant past, one in which pronounced social inequalities either did not exist or were on a pathway to becoming, we archaeologists suffer a mental disconnect. Religion falls by the wayside, words like “ideology” or “ritual” dominate our discourse when we do think about it, and almost inevitably, we return to our materialist roots and seek some sort of economic first cause or foundation for the emergence of social inequality.
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Aldenderfer, M. (2010). Gimme That Old Time Religion: Rethinking the Role of Religion in the Emergence of Social Inequality. In: Price, T.D., Feinman, G.M. (eds) Pathways to Power. Fundamental Issues in Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6300-0_4
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