100 generations of wealth equality after the Neolithic transitions
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Kerig, Tim; Crema, Enrico R.; Birch, Jennifer; Feinman, Gary M.; Green, Adam S.; Gronenborn, Detlef; Lawrence, Dan; Petrie, Cameron A.; Roscoe, Paul; Thompson, Amy E.; Kohler, Timothy A.
署名单位：
University of Kiel; Leipzig University; University of Cambridge; University System of Georgia; University of Georgia; Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago); University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Chicago; University of Illinois Chicago Hospital; University of York - UK; University of York - UK; Durham University; University of Maine System; University of Maine Orono; University of Maine System; University of Maine Orono; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; Washington State University; The Santa Fe Institute
刊物名称：
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ISSN/ISSBN：
0027-13359
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.2400697122
发表日期：
2025-04-22
关键词：
摘要：
From Rousseau onward, scholars have identified the transition to sedentary agriculture as crucial to the history of wealth inequality. Here, using the GINI project's global database on disparities in residential size, we examine the effects of important innovations in plant cultivation, animal husbandry, and traction on wealth inequality. Over a series of regional case studies, we find no evidence of major changes in residential disparity before or after these technological innovations became widespread, and where the effects of systemic change are recognizable, they are ambiguous. The introduction of horticulture/farming is accompanied by a slight general increase in inequality, while subsequent innovations tend to have a leveling effect. Although increasing productivity and surplus are critical to generating wealth inequality, nothing in our data suggests that rising productivity alone led to greater wealth inequality.