Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Dr. Michael Galaty
Archaeological Evidence for the Origins of Affluence

Dr. Michael Galaty received a B.A. with honors in Anthropology from Grinnell College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology and has been at Millsaps College since 1999. His areas of interest include the archaeology of complex societies and state formation, as well as the analytical analysis of ceramics. He has conducted archaeological research in Mississippi and Virginia, as well as in the European nations of Greece, Hungary, and Albania. Since 2004, he has directed the Shala Valley Project, which studies the archaeology and history of the territory of the Shala tribe in the northern Albanian high mountains, including their practices of warfare and feud. The Shala Valley Project is supported by major grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Galaty has published several books, on Mycenaean pottery, Mycenaean palaces, and the practice of archaeology under dictatorship. He was the 2003 winner of the Millsaps College Outstanding Young Faculty Award.

Presentation Preview

The archaeological origins of affluence can be traced to the Neolithic (“New Stone”) Age, the period (beginning circa 6000 BC) during which human beings the world over domesticated plants and animals. The transition to agriculture and settled village life may have been adaptations to changes in the environment, but changes in prehistoric social life may be implicated as well. It was also during the Neolithic that our ancestors first created systems of social stratification. These new social hierarchies depended on differential control of surplus goods, land, specialized economies, and trade. If today affluence seems paradoxical, the original paradox is that humans gave up hunting and gathering at all. Settled farmers worked harder and were less healthy than their hunter-gatherer forebears and neighbors. In this seminar, we will investigate and discuss the first paradox of affluence: why did humans leave millions of years of egalitarian social relations behind?

Discussion Questions

1. List the pros and cons of hunting and gathering versus settled agriculture. Which is better?
2. Given the problems that come with farming – risk, poor health, competition over land, population growth – what is it about an agricultural lifestyle that attracted Neolithic humans?
3. How did some few individuals turn systems of agricultural economy to their own advantage? Did they use force, ideology, such as religion, or both?
4. The Neolithic Age ended thousands of years ago, and yet the origins of our modern systems of social, political, and economic organization can be traced to the Neolithic. What aspects of Neolithic life still underpin Modern affluence?
5. What might we learn from extinct and living hunter-gatherers about affluence and its limits?
6. Go to the website for the excavations at Çatalhöyük. What evidence is there for rising social stratification at this important Neolithic settlement?
7. Investigate the Greek site of Lerna. What evidence is there for social stratification at this important Early Bronze Age site?

Recommended Advanced Reading

• Bender, Barbara. “Gatherer-Hunter to Farmer: A Social Perspective.” World Archaeology, Vol. 10 No.2 Pages 204-222. 1978.
• Hayden, Brian. “Pathways to Power: Principles for Creating Socioeconomic Inequalities.” In: Price, T.D. and G.M. Feinman, eds. Foundations of Social Inequality, Pages 15–86. 1995.
• Sahlins, Marshall. “The Original Affluent Society.” Stone Age Economics. 1972.