The Creation of Inequality

Flannery and Marcus (anthropological archaeology & social evolution, respectively, Univ. of Michigan) examine the rise of inequality in human societies around the world and explore its possible causes in this scholarly yet accessible work. They begin by looking at the basic personal equality thought to be present in nomadic bands of Ice Age hunters and gatherers and then explore the development and manifestation of social and political inequality in many human societies, prehistoric and modern, around the world. A few factors involved in the transition from equality to inequality include the formation of clans, the rise of agriculture, and the growth in population size of sedentary village- and town-based societies. The authors provide a wide variety of examples of the development of hereditary inequality and examine how this inequality was manifested in increasingly complex societies, culminating in the formation of chiefdoms, kingdoms, and empires. They seamlessly combine evidence from excavated archaeological sites with relevant data from modern studies to support their points. The final chapter assesses implications for the future.