Background
How an ancient object, artefact or commodity has moved over vast distances from one region to another, crossed major seas or travelled by land over extensive territories, has occupied and intrigued scholars in many disciplines over the years (Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky Reference Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975; Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018). This subject becomes even more intriguing knowing that no textual evidence can give us a hint or a glimpse how this was organized. Since the beginning of modern humans in the Palaeolithic, migration and mobility have driven demographic expansion and the movement of material culture. At the same time, social interaction and intermarriage between groups constituted a basic institutional pattern among modern humans to prevent inbreeding, as demonstrated by ancient DNA (Sikora et al. Reference Sikora, Seguin-Orlando, Sousa, Albrechtsen, Korneliussen, Ko, Rasmussen, Dupanloup, Nigst, Bosch, Renaud, Allentoft, Margaryan, Vasilyev, Veselovskaya, Borutskaya, Deviese, Comeskey, Higham, Manica, Foley, Meltzer, Nielsen, Excoffier, Mirazon Lahr, Orlando and Willerslev2017). New genetic evidence provides insights into patterns of human mobility and genetic admixture. However, the onset of trade and exchange as an institutionalized activity is still not well understood. The challenge increases once we move back in time before any written sources can inform us. How did pre-modern/pre-state societies organize themselves to engage in long-distance exchange? How did such societies communicate? How did such societies foster conditions and/or social institutions that facilitated long-distance exchange? Can the rise of social complexity be connected to long-distance exchange? Exactly how far did traders, raiders and visitors travel in prehistory and how were there distant exchanges organized? All of these questions can be boiled down to two basic questions: when and under what circumstances did trade become institutionalized in pre-state societies, and what forms did such institutionalization take?
In this book, we illustrate early forms of trade in tribal Neolithic and Bronze Age non-state societies in western Eurasia and outside. We also present ethnographic case studies, which may help us to understand prehistoric cases and thus form another way of illuminating a deep past without access to written sources.
Recently, novel methodologies, new archaeological discoveries and, not least, innovative theoretical approaches have challenges prevailing assumptions and interpretations. This trend is however not new:I’m told that archaeology is changing in two ways. First archaeologists themselves are bringing to bear new physical, chemical and statistical techniques of analysis …. The second sort of innovation is conceptual rather than technical … archaeologists are looking for new theories and concepts capable of powerful explanations of the societies, economies and polities they unearth.
How far has this development taken us since 1975? Most significantly, the science revolution in ancient DNA has dramatically changed our understanding of prehistory (Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen2014), by documenting widespread migrations during later prehistory, not least during the third millennium bc (Allentoft et al. Reference Allentoft, Sikora and Sjögren2015; Haak et al. Reference Haak, Lazaridis and Patterson2015). Thus, the inclusion of bioarchaeological perspectives, prospection methods, systematically investigated archaeological sites along with emerging technologies are transforming our understanding of the role that long-distance exchange played in evolutionary processes (Cashdan Reference Cashdan1980; Vanhaeren and d’Errico Reference Vanhaeren and d’Errico2005; Crown and Jeffrey Reference Crown and Jeffrey2009). aDNA and isotopic studies of human remains as well as lead isotopes of ancient metals have revolutionized our understanding of mobility and long-distance exchange in prehistory. Recent research on ancient DNA sequencing now shows that mass gene flow took place from present-day Ukraine/South Russia to north and western Europe in the third millennium bc (Allentoft et al. Reference Allentoft, Sikora and Sjögren2015). By combining these results with strontium isotopic analysis, as well as historical linguistics, it has become possible to model the process of migration and its local impact (Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Allentoft and Frei2017). Moreover, lead isotopes of ancient metals from the Scandinavian Bronze Age indicate that copper was imported from the Alps, Iberia and the British Isles (Ling et al. Reference Ling, Stos-Gale, Grandin, Billström, Hjärthner-Holdar and Persson2014, Reference Ling, Hjärthner-Holdar, Grandin, Stos-Gale, Kristiansen, Melheim, Artioli, Angelini, Krause and Canovaro2019; Melheim et al.Reference Melheim, Grandin, Persson, Billström, Stos-Gale, Ling and Kristiansen2018). In short, new ideas, methodologies and results challenge many pre-existing ways of understanding the origins and development of social complexity and its connection to long-distance exchange. All of these new discoveries call for, if not a redefinition, then at least a reinterpretation and recontextualization of ‘primitive trade’ in tribal and ranked/chiefdom societies. We need to balance migration and mobility against trade in goods for purposes of barter and trade. While there are many forms of social and political interaction that may result in the movement of goods, especially prestige goods (Helms Reference Helms1988, Reference Helms1993; Kristiansen and Larsson Reference Kristiansen and Larsson2005; Vandkilde et al. Reference Vandkilde, Hansen, Kotsakis, Kristiansen, Müller, Sofaer, Sørensen, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015), we need to define those circumstances and contexts when they are accompanied by or replaced by organized trade, which also includes barter. Thus, gift-exchange and barter/trade may be considered two sides of the same coin (Gell Reference Gell, Humphrey and Hugh-Jones1992). We define primitive trade/exchange (whether long-distance or short-distance – depending on definition) as the movement of goods (whether utilitarian or prestige items) beyond one’s own group, in order to sell, barter or exchange with other goods or services to earn a ‘profit’. Profit is normally based on value differences between points of origin and points of delivery but couched in diplomacy, to rephrase Sahlins (Reference Sahlins1972, chapter six). While forms of ‘profit’ vary, as do the social contexts of trade, we concur with Sahlins’ analysis and definition of primitive trade in his final chapter of Stone Age Economics (Sahlins Reference Sahlins1972). Here the geographical diversification of specialist production is seen as foundational for trade, similar to Ricardo’s (Reference Ricardo1817) original notion of comparative advantage. Traders manipulate production and value systems to transfer value differences in geographical space and between different value regimes, for example, prestige goods and utilitarian goods. Here Weiner’s notion of ‘inalienable possessions’ enters as an intermediate force in these processes (Weiner Reference Weiner1992). Since Sahlins’ seminal work was published, we have seen important contributions dealing with the role of gifts and commodities (Gregory Reference Gregory1982; Humphrey and Hugh-Jones Reference Humphrey and Hugh-Jones1992; Godelier Reference Godelier1999; Brück Reference Brück, Suchowska-Ducke, Scott Reiter and Vandkilde2015; Brandherm et al. Reference Brandherm, Heymans and Hofmann2018), as well as on the changing conditions of trade versus warfare in a historical perspective (Wiessner and Tumu Reference Wiessner and Tumu1998). Such discussions will be further explored later. As will be clear from the contributions in this book, it has increasingly become possible to define and sometimes quantify movements of goods that may fall under the definition of primitive trade. We believe this represents a foundation upon which to build more integrated theoretical models, also discussed in Chapters 16 and 17.
While much early research on the relationship between long-distance exchange and the rise of social complexity was predicated on quantitative top-down models (Renfrew Reference Renfrew, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975), the reaction against this pushed arguments in the opposite direction (Hodder Reference Hodder and Hodder1982). More recently, we have seen attempts to balance these opposing strands by including both perspectives, in line with a multi-scalar approach (Feinman Reference Feinman and Smith2012; Neitzel and Earle Reference Neitzel and Earle2014; Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018: 16). In the following, we provide a historical overview of the different theoretical strands which dominated discussions on long-distance trade and the rise of social complexity, as to illuminate our present situation.
Long-Distance Exchange and the Rise of Social Complexity
The connection between long-distance exchange and social complexity has been a central issue in both archaeology and social anthropology. The seminal works of Boas (Reference Boas1911), Mauss (Reference Mauss and Guyer2016 [1925]) and Malinowski (Reference Malinowski1922), dealing with societal organization and long-distance exchange along the Northwest Coast of North America and among the Trobriand Islanders, became important theoretical cornerstones in later discourses within anthropology and archaeology. Moreover, aspects of social evolution and its connection to trade and social organization have been intensely debated over the years. This discourse has a long history that dates back to the works of Spencer and Morgan’s Darwinist approaches that were later criticized by Boas, Malinowski and Mauss (Neitzel and Earle Reference Neitzel and Earle2014: 182).
During the 1950 and 1960s, two theoretical perspectives came to dominate the discourse on primitive trade: the so-called formalist and substantivist approaches. Both perspectives had their origins in political economy, the formalist approach can be traced back to Adam Smith’s liberal notions, while the substantivist approach can be traced back to Marx’s views on political economy (Earle Reference Earle2002). Embedded in this debate were also issues of social evolution and social complexity. Thus, it was the Marxist-inspired historian Karl Polanyi, who intensified the debate between these approaches (Polanyi Reference Polanyi, LeClair and Schneider1968) when he criticized the formalist method for projecting industrialist economies onto non-entrepreneur/non-industrial societies. Polanyi favoured the ideas of Marx and Engels and Max Weber’s functionalist approach (Dalton Reference Dalton, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975). Polanyi’s work became an important keystone for the structural functionalistic direction in anthropology, which Marshall Sahlins (Reference Sahlins1972) and Maurice Godelier (Reference Godelier1977) expanded on.
The debate between formalist and substantivist perspectives intensified during the 1970s, and two influential books epitomized increased interests in explaining the role of trade in archaeology and anthropology. In 1975, Ancient Civilization and Trade brought together researchers from archaeology and anthropology. Here is George Dalton’s extensive discussion of Karl Polanyi’s analysis of long-distance trade (Dalton Reference Dalton, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975), as well as Karl Polanyi’s most quoted essay: ‘Traders and Trade’ (Polanyi Reference Polanyi, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975). Many topics that Polanyi outlined remain relevant (see this volume along with Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018). Here we wish to mention the section that elaborates on motives for trade (such as status motives and profit motives) at individual and institutional levels in different societal and historical settings. Secondly, the section dealing with movable goods in relation to types of trade and characteristics of trade interest, including piracy-booty, staples-public policies and luxuries-class interest (Polanyi Reference Polanyi, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975: 146). Thirdly, the section dealing with transportation routes, means of transport, and the political technological organization of trade are of significance. Perhaps the most influential section deals with the classification of trade: gift trade, administered trade, and market trade. In sum, Polanyi identified the social processes or forces linking long-distance trade with social evolution and complexity. He argued that individuals secured elevated social standing and subsequently control over society by securing and strategically distributing exotic goods and valuables (Polanyi Reference Polanyi, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975), also labelled prestige goods economies by Friedman and Rowlands (Reference Friedman, Rowlands, Friedman and Rowlands1977) and wealth finance by D’Altroy and Earle (Reference D’ Altroy and Earle1985).
Colin Renfrew put forward a somewhat different perspective in his attempt to formulate a typology of modes of trade and the evolution of trade through the definition and quantification of distance curves of traded objects (Renfrew Reference Renfrew, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975; Hedeager Reference Hedeager, Kristiansen and Paludan-Müller1978). His point of departure is the Early State Module (ESM) which connects central place theory to the evolution of the ESM while moving from reciprocity to redistribution. Many of his models and concepts are still useful, as summarized in ‘Modes of trade and their spatial implications’ (Renfrew Reference Renfrew, Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky1975: figure 10). Furthermore, his critique of Polanyi´s scepticism of pre-state market exchange remains relevant (Larsson Reference Kristiansen and Larsson2005; Warburton Reference Warburton, Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018; Kristiansen and Demps and Winterhalder Reference Demps and Winterhalder2019). While human social activity is somewhat lost in Renfrew’s subsystems and quantitative models, they remain useful for archaeological theory building, an approach that has seen a recent revival (Demps and Winterhalder Reference Demps and Winterhalder2019).
In 1977, another influential book on trade appeared: Exchange Systems in Prehistory by Earle and Ericsson. Here the application of new science-based methods of chemical characterization of raw materials and their source was introduced as well as comparative models of exchange. Thus, during the 1970s, trade and exchange figures prominently in archaeological theory and interpretation (Adams Reference Adams1974; Kohl Reference Kohl1975; Rowlands Reference Rowlands, Barrett and Bradley1980), in parallel with new methods to characterize the exchange of goods, as evidenced in the interest in geographic methods in archaeology (Hodder Reference Hodder1978).
The interest in trade and exchange lessened since the mid-1980s with the introduction of post-processual theories in archaeology (Hodder Reference Hodder1978; Agbe-Davies and Bauer Reference Agbe-Davies, Bauer, Bauer and Agbe-Davies2010), focusing more on contextual studies of local communities rather than their distant interactions. We cite from Agbe-Davies and Bauer (Reference Agbe-Davies, Bauer, Bauer and Agbe-Davies2010):Of the 625 articles that appear in the Anthropological Literature database when doing a keyword search of ‘archaeology’ and ‘trade’, only 127 were published in the 1990s, compared with numbers almost double that in both 1970s and 1980s
Also, the theoretical framework of social evolution developed during the 1960s and early 1970s (Sahlins Reference Sahlins1958; Service Reference Service1962, Reference Service1975; Fried Reference Fried1967) was scrutinized critically by post-processualists (Shanks and Tilley Reference Shanks and Tilley1987) and radically demeaned as essentialist. We quote:
We suggest that evolutionary theories, of whatever kind, need to be abandoned in favour of a theoretical framework that can adequately cope with the indelibly social texture of change within a framework avoiding both reductionism and essentialism.
From the late 1980s onwards, studies on long-distance trade and its evolutionary significance were downplayed in favour of local interaction by individual agents. The pendulum had taken a full swing from essentialism to individualism, corresponding to changes in global ideological climate. During the 1990s into the early 2000s, these conflicting paradigms were increasingly replaced by applications of world system theory and postcolonial theory, at least for later prehistory. Much of this approach relives the early political economy concerns. Inspired by Wallerstein’s world-systemic approach, many scholars applied core and periphery models to analyze unequal relations between communities in prehistoric Europe (Sherratt Reference Sherratt1993; Sherrat and Sherratt Reference Sherratt and Sherratt1993; Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen1998). Due to critique of its system-based top-down perspective (Stein Reference Stein1999; Wilkinson Reference Wilkinson, Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018), a more contextualized world system approach was developed and applied to the Bronze Age (Kristiansen and Larsson Reference Kristiansen and Larsson2005; Warburton Reference Warburton, Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018), even if not accepted by all (Harding Reference Harding2013).
Partly as a reaction to world system theory, the postcolonial movement emerged as a response to grand narratives in Western history writings in the humanities and social sciences (Vandkilde et al. Reference Vandkilde, Hansen, Kotsakis, Kristiansen, Müller, Sofaer, Sørensen, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015). A key point was the re-institution of local agency during processes of colonization and following from that a more balanced understanding of the dialectic forces between colonizers and colonized in their local contexts, not least in the ancient Mediterranean (Hodos Reference Hodos2006; Dietler Reference Dietler2010; Van Dommelen and Knapp Reference Van Dommelen and Knapp2010). Researchers in anthropology and archaeology began applying ideas from this approach to prehistoric trade and interaction (Agbe-Davies and Bauer Reference Agbe-Davies, Bauer, Bauer and Agbe-Davies2010; Vandkilde et al. Reference Vandkilde, Hansen, Kotsakis, Kristiansen, Müller, Sofaer, Sørensen, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015), which also included the popular concept of ‘hybridity’ resulting from meetings and merging of traditions (Van Dommelen Reference Van Dommelen and Stein2005; Stockhammer Reference Stockhammer and Stockhammer2012). However, a growing critique of post-colonial discourse pointed to its inability to account for exploitation (Monroe Reference Monroe, Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018) and that the vagueness of some core concepts from this discourse, such as hybridity, ambiguity and liminality, tends to conceal patterns of dominance and social inequality (Silliman Reference Silliman2015). Others, however, have pointed to ways of reconciling Marxist and post-colonial approaches (Sinha and Varma Reference Sinha and Varma2015).
Parallel with these developments, the early 2000s saw a revival of theories connecting the role of long-distance trade in prestige goods with elites, inspired by earlier work of Mary Helms and others (Helms Reference Helms1979, Reference Helms1993; Hayden Reference Hayden, Price and Feinman1995; Marcus and Flannery Reference Marcus and Flannery1996; Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen1998). The role of travellers, traders, warriors and their institutions in the Bronze Age was highlighted by Kristiansen and Larsson (Reference Kristiansen and Larsson2005), and this was followed by publications on maritime institutions and agents operating in Bronze Age Europe (Monroe Reference Monroe, Wilkinson, Sherratt and Bennet2011, Reference Monroe, Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018; Ling et al. Reference Ling, Chacon, Chacon, Dolfini, Crellin and Horn2018a). A growing corpus of literature has illuminated the intimate relationship between trade and warfare (Chacon and Mendoza Reference Chacon and Mendoza2017; Horn and Kristiansen Reference Kristiansen, Allentoft and Frei2017; Dolfini et al. Reference Dolfini, Crellin, Horn and Uckelmann2018; Roscoe et al. Reference Roscoe, Chacon, Hayward and Chacon2019).
Other theoretical advances of relevance for long-distance trade are linked to collective action theory (Hardin Reference Hardin1982; Blanton and Fargher Reference Blanton and Fargher2007). Collective action refers to the coordinated actions of individuals toward a common goal (Hardin Reference Hardin1982; Feinman Reference Feinman, Chacon and Mendoza2017). More specifically, such a ‘common goal can only be attained if individuals contribute toward the objective’ (Chacon and Hayward Reference Chacon, Hayward, Chacon and Mendoza2017: 223, emphasis added). Thus, Chacon and Hayward (Reference Chacon, Hayward, Chacon and Mendoza2017) show how the securing exotic trade goods and/or valued commodities can establish incipient social hierarchies in a trans-egalitarian setting. They also document how the presence of an incipient social hierarchy, particularly during a military crisis, fosters coordination, which facilitates collective action. When onerous for actors (in terms of resources, time, labour, effort, etc.), collective action may fail and it is in that failure that collective action problems arise (Hardin Reference Hardin1982). Additionally, one of the most persistent problems hindering collective action is the coordination of group activities (Simpson et al. Reference Simpson, Willer and Ridgeway2012). Such coordination problems arise in any collective action scenario where actors benefit only if sufficient numbers of others also act (Chwe Reference Chwe2001). Collection action theory may be considered an attempt to bridge agency theory with forces and motivations leading to trade among other practices (see Hayden and Earle; see also Chapter 16).
The said developments led to a theoretical revival of theories on long-distance exchange and the role of political economy, social formations and social complexity, evidenced in a series of articles, books and proceedings (Blanton and Fargher Reference Blanton and Fargher2007; Bauer and Agbe-Davies Reference Bauer, Agbe-Davies, Bauer and Agbe-Davies2010; Hansen and Müller Reference Hansen, Müller, Hansen and Müller2011; Vandkilde et al. Reference Vandkilde, Hansen, Kotsakis, Kristiansen, Müller, Sofaer, Sørensen, Suchowska-Ducke, Reiter and Vandkilde2015; Chacon and Hayward Reference Chacon, Hayward, Chacon and Mendoza2017; Chacon and Mendoza Reference Chacon and Mendoza2017; Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018), as well as reformulations of Marxist theory on modes of production, social evolution and comparative advantage (Rowlands and Ling Reference Rowlands, Armada, Murillo-Barosso and Charlton2013; Earle and Spriggs Reference Earle and Spriggs2015; Earle et al. Reference Earle, Ling, Uhner, Stos-Gale and Melheim2015; Ling et al. Reference Ling, Cornell, Kristiansen, Rosenswig and Cunningham2017; Müller Reference Müller, Hansen and Müller2017; Rosenswig and Cunningham Reference Rosenswig, Cunningham, Rosenswig and Cunningham2017).
The earlier volume Trade and Civilization (Kristiansen et al. Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018) put forth a variety of new theoretical aspects on trade, from the origin of prices and values to a deconstruction of traditional definitions of civilization. Kristiansen (Reference Kristiansen, Lindkvist and Myrdal2018: 16) identifies three major strands in the current discourse of exchange that can be summarized as follows:‘Big Histories’: top down, macro perspectives; elite-based structure of exchange within a framework of an expanding world system.
‘Human lives’: bottom-up, micro perspectives; heterarchical and network and agent-based aspects of trade focusing on materiality.
‘Multi scalar approaches’ which seek to integrate macro and micro perspectives; hierarchical-heterarchical, agent-based materiality studies with quantitative perspectives.
Most theoretical strands can be found now in Trade Before Civilization, even if it deals with non-state societies that were involved in gift-based exchange systems connected to elite driven ritual practices of consumption (via hoarding and burial goods). In this way, elites define new ideologies and values. When such practices expanded, this may have spurred the formation of ‘globalized’ trade networks of shared gift economies. These new theoretical trends have been facilitated by the return of a comparative approach in anthropology and archaeology especially.
The Return of a Contextualized Comparative Approach
One of the main objectives of our conference was to transcend geographical boundaries in order to stimulate intellectual debate and to promote the cross-fertilization of ideas. We find ourselves here in line with recent attempts to revitalize the comparative approach in anthropology and archaeology (Smith Reference Smith2012). This revitalization is less quantitative than in the 1960s and 1970s, and it is rather based upon a theoretically informed contextualized approach that combines anthropology and archaeology, such as Cameron (2016) on the role of captives in pre-state societies or comparisons through time between Bronze Age and Viking Age societies in south Scandinavia (Ling et al. Reference Ling, Chacon, Chacon, Dolfini, Crellin and Horn2018a). Also, the role of specific institutions has been the object of recent comparative research. Examples of institutions which may have facilitated the formation of long-distance networks are secret societies (Hayden Reference Hayden2018), Bronze Age maritime institutions (Ling et al. Reference Ling, Earle and Kristiansen2018b), and Xenia, as discussed in Chapters 2, 8, 13 and 14. ‘Secret societies were able to transcend kinship, community, and ethnic boundaries by establishing regional networks that provided members with safe passage, lodging, preferential trading status, and access to ritual activities far beyond their local communities. Members could be recognized as initiates at distant locations by means of arcane and enigmatic physical symbols. The dispersed, regional widespread nature of these networks also likely facilitated the diffusion of particular artistic styles and motifs’ (Chacon Reference Chacon2020).
With our book, we wish to revitalize interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives, which so productively expanded our understanding of trade and exchange during the 1960s and 1970s, but now with the advantage of having a larger corpus of contextualized, comparative theory, as well as evidence from new science-based methods, such as strontium isotopes and aDNA at our disposal.
Thematic Organisation and Chapter Summaries
Despite the fact that this volume comprises case studies from different time periods and different geographical regions, chapters share a common research agenda which focuses on the important role that political economies have played in the rise of social complexity. This work analyzes how the procurement and use of prestige objects from afar (exotica) were used to forge and maintain power relationships within transegalitarian, ranked and/or chiefdom level societies. These chapters enhance our understanding of the economy of stateless societies, the role that comparative advantage played in the ascendancy of certain polities and the role played by specific institutions, such as secret societies and Xenia, but also how individual agents played a role in generating surpluses and expanding exchange networks beyond the local group, of how feasts were used to create debt and to forge wide-ranging alliances in the process, the various forms of transport technology used to secure trade goods and how aggrandizers were able to use exotica for political purposes by strategically controlling the key bottlenecks in the transport and access to such goods.
These strands are explored and analyzed by Hayden and Earle in Chapter 16: ‘Political Economy Perspectives in Trade before and beyond Civilizations’. Hayden and Earle connect and comment on individual contributions in this volume and address them against the backdrop of five steps that explains the ties between social exchange, social relations and the rise of social dominance and centrality. Their discussion provides a roadmap for understanding the role that political economies have played in the rise of social complexity. More specifically, they posit that local and regional economic institutions were linked to some distant (inter-regional) trade in exotic goods and that control of key bottlenecks contributed to the rise of social complexity. They emphasize that understanding trade in pre-state societies requires an understanding of the contexts in which distant trade evolved and, in turn, influenced the development of political institutionalized contexts and individual practices within those contexts.
Lastly, a review of the literature reveals that some edited volumes focusing on the rise of social complexity appear to endorse certain theoretical approaches over others. Contrastingly, the goal of the present volume is not to promote a particular theoretical standpoint; rather, the goal is to put forth case studies written from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives. However, since the chapters in this volume span many approaches and themes, we organised the contributions according to four major theoretical strands:Exchange and social evolution; forms of trade in egalitarian, transegalitarian, and chiefdom societies;
The role that specific institutions and agents played in long-distance exchange;
The role of political economy and elite control in long distance exchange;
Marxian and post-colonial approaches as well as world system theory in relation to gift exchange and macro-regional exchange.
Exchange and Social evolution: The Role of Trade in Egalitarian, Transegalitarian and Chiefdom Societies
In Chapter 2, Johannes Muller investigates the North Central European and South Scandinavian Funnel Beaker phenomena of the Neolithic period. The archaeological examples he puts forth support the position of anarchic oriented anthropologists, who hold that a society without rulers does not constitute an exception but rather a main line in human history. It stands in some contrast to models of social evolution and social complexity put forth by Hayden (Reference Hayden, Price and Feinman1995) and by Earle and Spriggs (Reference Earle and Spriggs2015). In its place, Müller argues that innovations, knowledge and new materials were obtained by long-distance contacts. When merged with ideology, they stabilized and solidified non-hierarchical governance over and over again, a process that lasted more than forty generations.
Mike Parker Pearson (Chapter 3) argues for the co-existence of both egalitarian and transegalitarian social structures being involved in the transport and exchange that took place in association with the megalith construction of Stonehenge in Neolithic Britain. Thanks to isotope analysis, archaeologists are now uncovering the complex networks of labour and livestock exchange associated with the building of Stonehenge. The case for Stonehenge as a monument of ancestral unity, linking the people of western Britain with those of the south and east, is a strong one. Ethnographic studies of living traditions of megalith construction reveal exchanges between wife-giving and wife-taking lineages, between women of different lineages and clans, between quarry-workers and tomb-builders and between hosts and mobilized labour.
In Chapter 4, Johan Ling, Richard J. Chacon and Yamilette Chacon explore the internal and external processes that favoured the rise of ranked maritime polities in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age. The authors put forth the supra regional interaction hypothesis to explain how elite households were able to consolidate political power through financing maritime ventures based on timber extraction, boat building, slave raiding and colonization. These elite households were organized into supra-regional political sodalities that controlled political power, surplus production, debt, exchange, feasts and warfare along with ritual and religious means. The authors hypothesize that these sodalities functioned as types of ‘secret societies’ as described by Hayden (Reference Hayden2018).
In his case study on long-distance exchange in New Guinea’s Sepik coastal region, Paul Roscoe (Chapter 5) discusses the operative aspects of prestige economies and their relation to exchange during the transition from egalitarian to trans-egalitarian societies. Roscoe applies a social signalling model, to analyze what archaeologists and anthropologists commonly call prestige economies. He argues that the goods, songs, dances, artistic motifs and other ritual valuables traded back and forth through this sphere were important components of a series of ceremonial displays that constituted the prestige economy of the region. These displays, though, are better thought of as generating a ‘dominance’ rather than a ‘prestige’ economy because they functioned as a conflict-management mechanism that substituted honest (i.e., accurate) signals of fighting strength thus producing a hierarchy of dominance.
The Role of Specific Institutions and Agents in Long-Distance Exchange
In Chapter 6, Flemming Kaul explores the ancient Greek concept of guest-friendship, xenia, an ancient concept that may increase our understanding of the kind of institutions which made long-distance exchange feasible in Bronze Age Europe. In ancient Greece, xenia refers to notions of hospitality, exchange and friendship between non-related individuals who are distinctly separate from each other by way of family, kinship and society. Kaul points to how amber from the North was traded to the east Mediterranean, while glass beads made from Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass found their way into Nordic Bronze Age burials. Moreover, the introduction of the folding stool, the single-edged razor, as well as indications of chariot use during the Nordic Bronze Age connect this sphere with the Mediterranean World. Kaul argues that the concept of xenia may increase our understanding of the social mechanisms that made long-distance exchange and voyages feasible throughout Bronze Age Europe.
Interestingly, xenia shares some similarities with the actions and institutions related to so called secret societies as documented by Hayden (Reference Hayden2018; see also Chapter 17). These sodalities are task-orientated institutions which transcend familial, kinship and societal boundaries with incipient specialization of labour such as long-distance exchange, maritime ventures, warfare and ritual and they are often involved in the creation of rock art. The relationship between secret societies and long-distance exchange is discussed by Johan Ling, Richard J. Chacon, and Yamilette Chacon in Chapter 4. These authors argue that Bronze Age Scandinavian rock art was created by secret society members who specialized in maritime long-distance exchange, warfare and ritual activities. In this context, rock art served as a kind of ‘secondary agent’, with the carvings forming part of a larger ritual component designed to ensure the seaworthiness of watercraft along with the overall success of ocean voyages.
Along these lines, David Dye (Chapter 7) examines how secret societies participated in the Mississippian exchange networks of the Protohistoric period. Dye holds that aristocratic ritual sodalities (i.e., secret societies) were responsible for the wide circulation of various ritual objects by way of a competitive and secretive exchange system. Thus, aristocratic corporate groups across the region were ritually integrated through a secret society network that possessed a shared symbology and iconography as evidenced by the widespread recovery of Lightning Boy gorgets.
In terms of institutions and agents, William Marquardt (Chapter 8) discusses the social benefits for certain individuals engaged in long-distance exchange in southwestern Florida, the historic homeland of the Calusa. Marine lightning whelk shells were transported c. 3000 bc to Kentucky and Tennessee, where artefacts such as beads, atlatl weights, drinking vessels, pendants, gorgets and ‘ear pins’ were made from them. Traders conducting such exchanges likely travelled great distances to meet with trading partners. Marquardt suggests that one benefit of these encounters was obtaining knowledge that could be useful to home communities upon their return. Thus, well-travelled individuals would enjoy positions of high social status during their lifetimes, and they would be in positions of authority due to their knowledge of the wider world. Drawing from evidence for both intra- and inter-regional trade, Marquardt holds that both types of trade played roles in the emergence of Calusa social and political complexity.
The Role of Political Economies and Elite Control in Long-Distance Exchange
Matthew Spriggs (Chapter 9) expresses an innovative notion regarding the Lapita culture of the Western Pacific (~3000 BP). He proposes that it is time to give equal weight to the idea of a political economy founded on the manipulation, exchange and control of prestige-practices, rather than just on material prestige-goods. Spriggs defines prestige-practices as those activities involving the activation of esoteric knowledge systems above and beyond the pragmatic skills used in the production of material items, transportation or other communally recognized activities and/or performances. These practices would have enhanced the prestige of specialists such as skilled tattoo artists who used obsidian to create their designs.
In Chapter 10, William O’Brien discusses the role of political economy and political control with reference to long-distance exchange and the development of hillfort chiefdoms during the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition in Ireland c. 1400–1000 bc. Control of the production or distribution of metal, in line with various technological constraints and restricted sharing of mining and metallurgical expertise, meant that some areas emerged as strong producers of primary metal, while others relied on trade to meet their needs. Thus, the control of metal circulation and long-distance exchange by individuals or groups for their own benefit had important implications in terms of the development of social stratification and social complexity.
Ruben Mendoza (Chapter 11) explores the appearance of a ‘Turquoise Corridor’ during the Middle Classic (c. ad 250–550) through Early Postclassic (ad 900–1250) that fuelled inter-elite interaction encompassing prestige technologies and ritual economies that bridged the emerging polities of the American Southwest with Mesoamerica. The author holds that the Turquoise Corridor played a key role in the rise and fall of compound chiefdoms and entrepôts in the American Southwest and on the northern frontiers of Mesoamerica. The aggregation of newfound settlements presaged the escalation of subsidiary trading networks, the expansion of corollary social formations, the reorganization of settlement patterns and the emergence of a turquoise-based ritual economy. Turquoise surfaced as the premier symbol of royal investiture by way of the New Fire Ceremony that, in turn, presaged the decline of jade as a status symbol. With the increased significance of turquoise in Mesoamerican ritual contexts, Costa Rican and other Central American gold-based prestige technologies were aligned with turquoise along with the expansion of the ritual economies of the Turquoise Corridor.
Marxian, Post-colonial, and World System Approaches: The Role of Macro-regional Exchange
Michel Rowlands (Chapter 12) is concerned with the articulation of the concept modes of production in relation to trade in prehistoric contexts and he is in line with French Marxist anthropologists Meillasoux (Reference Meillassoux1981) and Ekholm Friedman and Friedman (Reference Ekholm Friedman and Friedman2008). A mode of production is, according to Rowlands, embedded in a moral value of re-production. This notion allows us to recognize that labour was not an absolute value and that modes of re-production could transform social qualitative value into quantitative value. Rowlands also stresses that an emphasis on control of prestige goods as a means of access to social networks constitutes a rather superficial explanation for understanding the social mechanisms of prehistoric trade. Rowlands examines the role of gift exchange and how this notion can be used to address various associations of morality with exchange in terms of Bronze Age trade. In light of Mauss’ work, he stresses that, without a doubt, exchange is the key process in understanding the creation of value. Additionally, Rowlands argues that the essence of the gift is a form of exchange value that leads to accumulation of wealth in people rather than things.
Helle Vandkilde (Chapter 13) discusses the supra regional exchange of metal, referred to as bronzization, that connected a macro-region of Afro-Eurasia about 2000 bc. However, her case study focuses on metal trade between Scandinavia and Central Europe and the British Isles, from 2000 to 1500 bc. Vandkilde invokes a political economy to explain how Scandinavian societies responded to the drastic changes in exchange that took place during the Bronze Age. The interaction of the local, regional and super-regional spheres is a hallmark of this phase, clearly different from the interactions taking place during the Neolithic. Vandkilde argues that intra-Scandinavian interconnectivity cannot be clearly separated from extra-Scandinavian interconnectivity during this phase. These processes were rather interdependent modes of interaction that developed simultaneously when the Nordic zone became a maritime-orientated region. Furthermore, she holds that the practise of metal hoarding was in line with metal to Mauss’ notions about gift exchange. Most hoarded metals during this phase were deposited in river and lake contexts thereby ensuring that these valuables were properly returned to their supernatural owners.
Svend Hansen (Chapter 14) focuses on the exchange networks in Eurasia active during fourth millennium bc. Hansen also provides a robust description of the history of research on social theory and how certain aspects of social evolution and social complexity are connected to long-distance exchange in Eurasia. When it comes to the interpretation of the driving forces fuelling long-distance exchange in the region, Hansen stresses Marxist theory and related social theory as put forth by Mauss and Levi-Strauss. For instance, the widespread phenomenon of metal hoarding in Eurasia from the fourth millennium bc is interpreted as being in line with the social theory dealing with the control and intimidation of groups that controlled copper extraction. This allowed leaders to build and maintain exclusive trade relations and it also allowed leaders to claim control over the ‘imagined powers’. Moreover, in accordance with Mauss’ notions concerning gift exchange, Hansen argues that the hoarding of metals for the imagined powers was enforced by Neolithic and Bronze Age societies in Eurasia in order to increase the power of certain communities.
Antonio Curet and José Oliver (Chapter 15) assess the evidence traditionally used to suggest the presence of long-distance exchange between the Caribbean and mainland Central/South America. The authors discuss the evidence present in the Caribbean used to indicate the presence of long-distance exchange. This evidence includes but is not limited to a shared plant complex; stylistic similarities of designs and motifs, mostly on the iconography of ornamental, sumptuary or religious artifacts of personal use (mostly pendants); the recovery of possible Guatemalan Motagua Valley jadeitite in Caribbean contexts and the presence of gold-copper alloy (tumbaga) ornaments (guanín). After critically evaluating this evidence which has been used to interpret long-distance exchange, Curet and Oliver identify many epistemological and methodological problems with these conclusions including, among others, the use of unfounded assumptions and premises and the lack of contextual information. The authors conclude that, considering these issues, presently, we do not fully understand how such imported objects affected and impacted the direction of local historical and social processes which gave rise to the development of social complexity.
Concluding Chapter: Political Economy Perspectives in Trade before and beyond Civilizations
In Chapter 16, Brian Hayden and Timothy Earle aptly summarize the very essence of this volume (see also above). Their chapter offers an excellent overview of many of the theoretical aspects that this book puts forth with particular attention to the role played by political economies in ancient trade associated with the rise of social complexity (see also above). These authors provide salient insights into the topics and issues presented by the volume’s contributors and they conclude and contextualize the contributions in the light of state-of-the-art theory that links aspects of political economy to social organization and institutions.
