Provisioning an Early City: Spatial Equilibrium in the Agricultural Economy at Angkor, Cambodia.

Autor: Klassen S; Archaeological Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands., Ortman SG; Department of Anthropology and Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA., Lobo J; School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA., Evans D; École française d'Extrême-Orient, 22 Avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of archaeological method and theory [J Archaeol Method Theory] 2022; Vol. 29 (3), pp. 763-794. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Sep 23.
DOI: 10.1007/s10816-021-09535-5
Abstrakt: A dominant view in economic anthropology is that farmers must overcome decreasing marginal returns in the process of intensification. However, it is difficult to reconcile this view with the emergence of urban systems, which require substantial increases in labor productivity to support a growing non-farming population. This quandary is starkly posed by the rise of Angkor (Cambodia, 9th-fourteenth centuries CE), one of the most extensive preindustrial cities yet documented through archaeology. Here, we leverage extensive documentation of the Greater Angkor Region to illustrate how the social and spatial organization of agricultural production contributed to its food system. First, we find evidence for supra-household-level organization that generated increasing returns to farming labor. Second, we find spatial patterns which indicate that land-use choices took transportation costs to the urban core into account. These patterns suggest agricultural production at Angkor was organized in ways that are more similar to other forms of urban production than to a smallholder system.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-021-09535-5.
Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.
(© The Author(s) 2021.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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