ABSTRACT

Archaeology lends a critical perspective to research on social inequality due to the field’s unique access to deep history, emphasis on materiality, and explicit incorporation of multiple lines of evidence. This paper offers a concise overview of archaeological approaches aimed at students and scholars in other fields. We develop a categorization of disciplinary strategies, arguing that archaeologists address institutionalized inequality through examining inequalities in the accumulation of goods or resources (economic differentiation); access to resources or knowledge (social differentiation), and inequalities in action, the ability to make decisions for oneself or others (political differentiation). We illustrate these categories with reference to the distinctions between material, relational, and embodied wealth. We draw upon a broad range of geographic, chronological, and cultural case studies to illustrate the flexibility and utility of archaeological methods for answering questions about inequality in human societies.

摘要

考古学为社会不平等研究提供了批判性的视角，因为该领域独特地了解深厚的历史、强调物质性以及明确纳入多种证据。本文为其他领域的学生和学者提供了考古方法的简要概述。我们制定了学科策略的分类，认为考古学家通过检查商品或资源积累的不平等（经济分化）来解决制度化的不平等问题；获得资源或知识的机会（社会分化）、行动上的不平等、为自己或他人做出决定的能力（政治分化）。我们通过物质财富、关系财富和实体财富之间的区别来说明这些类别。