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Full-Text Articles in Economic History
The Late Prehispanic Economy Of The Valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico: Weaving Threads From Data, Theory, And Subsequent History, Gary M. Feinman, Linda M. Nicholas
The Late Prehispanic Economy Of The Valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico: Weaving Threads From Data, Theory, And Subsequent History, Gary M. Feinman, Linda M. Nicholas
Gary M. Feinman
Models of prehispanic Mesoamerican economies have long been derived from theoretical constructs broadly associated with Marx’s Asiatic mode of production, specifically the writings of Wittfogel and Polanyi, which emphasized centralized control of irrigation and managed systems of production and distribution. Yet, for the Valley of Oaxaca, ethnographic data point to smaller-scale, more flexible systems of production, the importance of market exchange, and mechanisms for domestic cooperation. Drawing on residential excavation data from three Classic-period sites, systematic regional surveys, and other sources, the authors find that the data from the prehispanic era conform much more closely to the ethnographic findings than …
Complexities Of Collapse: The Evidence Of Maya Obsidian As Revealed By Social Network Graphical Analysis, Gary M. Feinman, Mark Golitko, James Meierhoff, Patrick Ryan Williams
Complexities Of Collapse: The Evidence Of Maya Obsidian As Revealed By Social Network Graphical Analysis, Gary M. Feinman, Mark Golitko, James Meierhoff, Patrick Ryan Williams
Gary M. Feinman
The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.
Preindustrial Markets And Marketing: Archaeological Perspectives, Gary M. Feinman, Christopher P. Garraty
Preindustrial Markets And Marketing: Archaeological Perspectives, Gary M. Feinman, Christopher P. Garraty
Gary M. Feinman
Markets are key contemporary institutions, yet there is little agreement concerning their history or diversity. To complicate matters, markets have been considered by different academic disciplines that approach the nature of such exchange systems from diametrically opposed perspectives that impede cross-disciplinary dialogue. This paper reviews the theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the detection, development, and significance of markets in the preindustrial past. We challenge both the view that marketing is natural and the perspective that market exchange is unique to modern capitalist contexts. Both of these frameworks fail to recognize that past and present market activities are embedded in their …