The Role Of Markets In The Development Of Social Complexity

俄勒冈州立大学的Leah Minc博士和一个国际合作团队将探索市场交换的起源，以及在古代经济中培育市场体系的具体政治和社会条件。虽然市场是现代经济的基本组成部分，但学者们质疑古代社会是否发展了类似的商业交换制度，并争论哪些因素刺激了非西方经济传统中商业交换制度的出现和发展。从现代微观经济理论的角度来看，一些研究人员认为，一旦政治稳定确保了行动自由和法治，商业交换和复杂的劳动分工就会在复杂的社会中自然演变，成为向大量人口提供基本商品的有效解决方案。相比之下，其他学者则对现代思维模式（包括对经济理性、竞争和利润动机的假设）在非西方或前工业化社会中的适用性提出了质疑。例如，一些历史学家质疑，在高度分层的社会中，对生产资料（土地和劳动力）的控制牢牢掌握在统治阶级手中，建立在利润激励基础上的生产和交换是否能在农民中合理发展，或者在这些情况下，其他形式的交换（如大家庭网络）是否能提供一种获取所需商品的手段。考古学很好地准备评估微观经济假设的普遍性，通过检查遥远的过去的市场交换的证据，以及其发展的政治和社会背景，以及为社区提供必要材料的其他交换形式的可能持久性。这个合作项目将通过使用核科学和地球化学技术来追踪基本实用物品的交换，审查市场系统发展的一个原始案例。该项目将重点关注墨西哥瓦哈卡山谷，这里是新世界早期国家社会记录最完整的地方之一，并将探索关键的政治事件如何影响区域经济互动和一体化。研究小组将利用从整个山谷社区出土的家用陶器收藏，使用强大的微量元素分析方法（仪器中子活化分析）来确定陶瓷容器的制造地点，绘制它们从生产者到消费者的移动地图，并评估国家出现和巩固的关键时期（约公元前700年至公元550年）山谷内交换的空间规模、组织和强度。观察到的分配模式将为重新评估市场系统演变的具体模型提供坚实的基础，并为未来研究这些经济变化如何影响家庭的生产、消费和交换决策提供手段。此外，考古学和核科学的交叉将为STEM教育和社会科学学生的专业培训创造机会；与此同时，由于其“对人类的吸引力”，考古研究可以为核科学提供支持，吸引公众兴趣，并证明基础设施和实验室设备升级的合理性。

Dr. Leah Minc, of Oregon State University, and an international team of collaborators will explore the origins of market-place exchange and the specific political and social conditions fostering market systems in ancient economies. Although markets are a fundamental part of modern economy, scholars question whether similar commercial exchange systems developed in ancient societies and debate which factors stimulated their emergence and growth in non-western economic traditions. From the perspective of modern microeconomic theory, some researchers have argued that commercial exchange and a complex division of labor evolved naturally in complex societies as an efficient solution to provisioning large populations with essential goods, once political stability ensured freedom of movement and rule of law. Other scholars, in contrast, dispute the applicability of the modern mind-set (including assumptions of economic rationality, competition, and profit motive) to non-western or pre-industrial societies. For example, some historians question whether in highly stratified societies, where control over the means of production (land and labor) was firmly held by the ruling class, production and exchange built on profit incentives could reasonably develop among the peasantry, or whether in these cases alternative forms of exchange (such as extended family networks) might provide a means for acquiring needed commodities. Archaeology is well poised to evaluate the universality of micro-economic assumptions, by examining the evidence for market exchange in the distant past, as well as the political and social context for its development and the possible persistence of alternative forms of exchange that supplied communities with necessary materials. This collaborative project will examine a pristine case of market system development by using nuclear science and geochemical techniques to trace exchanges of basic, utilitarian goods. The project will focus on the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, home to one of the best documented early state societies in the New World, and will explore how key political events affected regional economic interaction and integration through time. Drawing on excavated collections of domestic pottery from communities throughout the valley, the research team will use robust methods of trace-element analysis (instrumental neutron activation analysis) to establish where ceramic vessels were manufactured, map their movement from producer to consumer, and assess the spatial scale, organization, and intensity of intra-valley exchange across key periods of state emergence and consolidation (from ca. 700 BC through 550 AD). The observed distribution patterns will provide a sound foundation from which to re-assess specific models of market system evolution, as well as a means for future studies to address how these economic changes affected households' production, consumption, and exchange decisions. Further, the intersection of archaeology and nuclear science will create opportunities for STEM education and professional training for students in the social sciences; at the same time, due to its "human appeal," archaeometric research can build support for nuclear science, engaging public interest and justifying infrastructure and lab equipment upgrades.