- Preface
- Part I: Starting Out Equal
- 1. Genesis and Exodus
- 2. Rousseau’s “State of Nature”
- 3. Ancestors and Enemies
- 4. Why Our Ancestors Had Religion and the Arts
- 5. Inequality without Agriculture
- Part II: Balancing Prestige and Equality
- 6. Agriculture and Achieved Renown
- 7. The Ritual Buildings of Achievement-Based Societies
- 8. The Prehistory of the Ritual House
- 9. Prestige and Equality in Four Native American Societies
- Part III: Societies That Made Inequality Hereditary
- 10. The Rise and Fall of Hereditary Inequality in Farming Societies
- 11. Three Sources of Power in Chiefly Societies
- 12. From Ritual House to Temple in the Americas
- 13. Aristocracy without Chiefs
- 14. Temples and Inequality in Early Mesopotamia
- 15. The Chiefly Societies in Our Backyard
- 16. How to Turn Rank into Stratification: Tales of the South Pacific
- Part IV: Inequality in Kingdoms and Empires
- 17. How to Create a Kingdom
- 18. Three of the New World’s First-Generation Kingdoms
- 19. The Land of the Scorpion King
- 20. Black Ox Hides and Golden Stools
- 21. The Nursery of Civilization
- 22. Graft and Imperialism
- 23. How New Empires Learn from Old
- Part V: Resisting Inequality
- 24. Inequality and Natural Law
- Notes
- Sources of Illustrations
- Index
The Creation of Inequality
How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire
Product Details
PAPERBACK
$26.00 • £22.95 • €23.95
ISBN 9780674416772
Publication Date: 10/06/2014
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Awards & Accolades
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2012
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