The global distribution of wealth is currently the subject of controversial debate. Against this backdrop, social sciences, humanities, and economics are intensively investigating how social hierarchies arise in human communities and where these processes originate. A widely held theory to date is that the introduction of agriculture in Europe at the beginning of the Neolithic period, around 8,000 years ago, inevitably led to socially unequal communities. The introduction of the plow and the associated hereditary transfer of farming capital further intensified this process.
5,000 years of (in)equality in the Carpathian Basin: Challenging theories on social hierarchies in prehistory
Reader’s Picks
-
“Spill the Tea, Honey: Gossiping Predicts Well-Being in Same- and Different-Gender Couples” is the name of a new study from [...]
-
Signs that an individual might be on the verge of self-harm are often found in their online actions, but can [...]
-
Teenagers can seem to have their phones glued to their hands—yet they won’t answer them when they ring. This scenario, [...]