کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
1035853 943867 2011 8 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Specialization and social inequality in Bronze Age SE Arabia: analyzing the development of production strategies and economic networks using agent-based modeling
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه مهندسی مواد دانش مواد (عمومی)
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Specialization and social inequality in Bronze Age SE Arabia: analyzing the development of production strategies and economic networks using agent-based modeling
چکیده انگلیسی

This paper investigates the role of specialized production strategies in the development of socio-economic inequalities in Bronze Age south-eastern (SE) Arabia, and particularly, the ways in which a localized, internal exchange economy may have produced stress and instability in the SE Arabian socio-economic system. While archaeological research has established that the communities of SE Arabia participated in a widespread Bronze Age exchange system that included areas of the ancient Near East, South Asia, and Central Asia, it is unclear to what degree this interaction fostered the broad-scale socio-economic changes seen in the Early Bronze Age of SE Arabia. Here we present the results of an agent-based model that suggest the nature of the internal exchange economy in SE Arabia itself may have precipitated the social conditions necessary for change by allowing individuals to profit disproportionately. We thus emphasize the importance of local production strategies in generating socio-economic change, in addition to the well-established economic and cultural contacts with the wider Bronze Age world.


► We examine local sources of instability in Bronze Age SE Arabian exchange economy.
► Our agent-based model suggests wealth inequality is linked to technical innovations.
► Wealth disparity occurs in socially based as well as profit-based exchange systems.
► Archaeologically visible equality may have been to socially offset wealth disparities.
► Local dynamics of exchange were as influential as broader trade links in Near East.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Journal of Archaeological Science - Volume 38, Issue 7, July 2011, Pages 1583–1590
نویسندگان
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