Inequality is a contemporary hot topic. Globalization and political populism have, on the one hand, drawn more attention to the analysis of inequality in economics. On the other hand, established concepts and methods have come under attack for perhaps not exposing important dimensions of inequality (e.g Stiglitz, 2012; Michalovic, 2016).Where does archaeology and with it anthropological social theory more broadly stand with regard to the concept of inequality? In archaeology, we find both established theories and approaches as well as attempts at rethinking inequality and its conceptual neighborhood (Kohler & Smith, 2018; Price & Feinman, 2010). Inequality is intimately linked to concepts of social complexity, power, competition and co-operation, and with that broader questions concerning archaeological interpretation.In this session we wish to provide a venue for discussing archaeology of inequality, both, in terms of theoretical questions pertaining to our understanding of inequality as well as questions of in terms of identifying inequalities in archaeological practice. Topics covered in the session may include:
Inequality of what? Does social complexity equal inequality?
Hierarchy or heterarchy What is value?
Inequality as a driver of social change
Quantifying inequality
Household, settlement, and regional scales of inequality
References
Kohler, Tim & Smith, Michael E. (eds.) 2018. Ten Thousand Years of inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Michalovic, Branko, 2016. Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. London: Harvard University Press.
Price, T. Douglas & Feinman, Gary (eds.) 2010. Pathways to Power: New Perspectives on the Emergence of Social Inequality. London: Springer.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2012. The Price of Inequality. London: W.W. Norton & Company.
Organisers: Vesa Arponen; University of Kiel • Artur Ribeiro; University of Kiel
9:30 | V. P. J. Arponen, University of Kiel | New Inequality: Concepts and Operationalization
9:45 | Penny Bickle, University of York | Diversity vs. Inequality?
10:00 | John P. Walden, University of Pittsburgh; Michael Biggie, Los Angeles Maritime Institute; Julie A. Hoggarth, Baylor University, Texas | Examining the Role of Intermediate Elites in Determining Changing Patterns of Inequality in Status, Wealth and Wellbeing during the Rise of the Late Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize
10:15 | Dries Daems, University of Leuven | Conceptual modelling of social complexity trajectories and inequality in urban networks.
10:30 | Adam S. Green, Cambridge University; Thomas P. Leppard, Florida State University; Toby C. Wilkinson, Cambridge University; Darryl Wilkinson, Cambridge University | Capital in the 21st Century BC: The Bronze Age Dynamics of Economic Growth and Inequality
10:45 | Darryl Wilkinson, Cambridge University; Toby C. Wilkinson, Cambridge University; Adam S. Green, Cambridge University; Thomas P. Leppard, Florida State University | A Deep History of Oligarchy
11:00 | - | BREAK
11:30 | Susanne Moraw, University of Leipzig | Iconography of Inequality: children and adolescents in the mosaics of a Late Antique Villa
11:45 | Manuel Fernández-Götz, University of Edinburgh | Debating social inequality in Iron Age research – where are we now?
12:00 | Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures; Andrew Hutcheson, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures | Yayoi vs Iron Age: a comparison of increasingly complex settlement structures and material cultures during later prehistory in Japan and Britain
12:15 | Artur Ribeiro, University of Kiel | Environment and inequality: understanding climate and social process through the impact of the 4.2k event in Southern Iberia
12:30 | Session organisers | Discussion
13:00 | - | END
Speakers MB
Los Angeles Maritime Institute
SK
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
AH
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
Wednesday December 18, 2019 9:30am - 1:00pm GMT
Room 802/4
20 Bedford Way, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0AL