Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on modern economic theory, this book provides new insights into the economic development of ancient economies and the sustainability of their development. The book pays particular attention to the economics of hunting and gathering societies and their diversity. New ideas are presented about theories of the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, including Childe's theory of this development. The Agricultural Revolution was a major contributor to economic development because in most cases, it generated an economic surplus. However, as shown, income inequality was a necessary condition for the use of this surplus to promote economic development and to avoid the Malthusian population trap. This inequality was evident in the successful operation of the palatial economies of the Minoan and Mycenaean states. Nevertheless, some post-agricultural economies proved to be unsustainable, and they mysteriously disappeared. This happened in the case of the Silesian Únetice cul
Table of Contents1. An Overview of Our Perspectives on the Economic Development and Sustainability of Ancient Societies PART I: ECONOMICS OF HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES 2.Stages of Early Economic Development: Economic Evolution and the Diversity of Societies 3. Traditional Economies of Australian Aborigines – Their Sustainability, Desirability and Sahlins’ Hypothesis 4. The Sustainability and Economic Development Options of Foragers: New Economic Analysis 5. The Lengthy Endurance of Hunting and Gathering Economies PART II: THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: THE TRANSITION TO AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AGRICULTURE 6. A Reconsideration of Theories about the Commencement of Agriculture and New Suggestions 7. Alternatives to and a Critique of Economic Optimization Theories as a Determinant of the Transition to Agriculture 8. Contemporary Thought and Childe’s Theory of Economic Development and the Agricultural Revolution PART III: EVOLUTION OF EARLY ECONOMIES AFTER THE COMMENCEMENT OF AGRICULTURE 9. Analysis of Why Some Agrarian Societies Avoided the Malthusian Trap and Developed 10. Economic and Ecological Reasons Why the Silesian Únĕtice Population Disappeared 11. The Palatial Economic Development of Minoan and Mycenaean States 12. Barter and the Origins of Money: Insights from the Ancient Palatial Economies of Mesopotamia and Egypt 13. Phoenicia: Its Economic Development Before its use of Coinage
