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The Emergence of Inequality

A Focus on Strategies and Processes

  • Chapter
Foundations of Social Inequality

Part of the book series: Fundamental Issues in Archaeology ((FIAR))

Abstract

In the history of the human species, there is no more significant transition than the emergence and institutionalization of inequality. Yet strangely, until recently, this critical issue has received less direct concern in archaeological discussions of social change than two other important evolutionary questions, the origins of agriculture and the rise of the state. In part, this lack of focused attention accounts for the pessimism cited above, especially when the enormity of this general issue is considered. Yet, in part, these comments also may stem from the inability of ecologically oriented scholars, like Binford and Kelly, to define a specific and parsimonious suite of exogenous conditions (e.g., environment, population) that can convincingly explain this key socioeconomic transition.

What I am saying in effect, is that archaeologists still do not know what causes complex societies, what brings them into being. (Binford 1983:231)

Relatively little progress, however, has been made in explaining inequality. (Kelly 1991:136)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706-1393, USA

    Gary M. Feinman

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  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    T. Douglas Price  & Gary M. Feinman  & 

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Feinman, G.M. (1995). The Emergence of Inequality. In: Price, T.D., Feinman, G.M. (eds) Foundations of Social Inequality. Fundamental Issues in Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1289-3_10

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