Anthropological research has long theorized that emergent food-producing economies catalyzed high levels of inequality in human societies, as evident in the earliest use of jewelry made from gold, copper, and other precious minerals among early agricultural populations. Although the US Southwest appears to have been an exception, we report the discovery of two Basketmaker II period necklaces constructed of green iridescent scarab beetle femora, which suggests a homologous association between emergent agriculture and inequality. Drawing insight from ethnography, archaeology, entomology, and evolutionary ecology, we hypothesize that these and other jewelry items of Basketmaker II culture were visually prominent, honest signals of socioeconomic capital that emerged during a period of surplus food production and incipient wealth accumulation. It appears that Basketmaker II societies—like other emergent food-producing economies around the world—grappled with the opportunities and challenges that arise with surplus production, albeit in a distinct way that involved visually striking insect and feather adornments as status signals. Archaeologists may have previously overlooked this behavior due to Western biases that privilege precious metals and minerals as prestige objects and archaeological biases that tend to view insects as food or agents of site disturbance.

人类学研究长期以来一直认为，新兴的粮食生产经济体加剧了人类社会的高度不平等，这在早期农业人口中最早使用由金、铜和其他珍贵矿物制成的珠宝中就是明证。尽管美国西南部似乎是个例外，但我们报告了两条由绿色虹彩圣甲虫股骨构成的 Basketmaker II 时期项链的发现，这表明新兴农业与不平等之间存在同源关联。从民族志、考古学、昆虫学和进化生态学的角度来看，我们假设这些和其他 Basketmaker II 文化的珠宝物品在视觉上是突出的，是在粮食生产过剩和财富积累初期出现的社会经济资本的真实信号。看起来 Basketmaker II 社会——与世界上其他新兴的粮食生产经济体一样——努力应对生产过剩带来的机遇和挑战，尽管以一种独特的方式将视觉上引人注目的昆虫和羽毛装饰作为地位信号。由于西方偏见将贵金属和矿物视为有声望的物品，以及倾向于将昆虫视为食物或场地干扰因素的考古偏见，考古学家以前可能忽视了这种行为。