Book contents
- Trade before Civilization
- Trade before Civilization
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Chapter One New Perspectives on Long-Distance Trade and Social Complexity
- Part I Exchange and Social Evolution: Forms of Trade in Egalitarian, Transegalitarian, and Chiefdom Societies
- Chapter Two Funnel Beaker Societies and Long-Distance Trade
- Chapter Three Stonehenge
- Chapter Four Bronze Age Long-Distance Exchange, Secret Societies, Rock Art, and the Supra Regional Interaction Hypothesis
- Chapter Five Rethinking the Prestige Economy and Its Role in Trade and Exchange
- Part II The Role That Specific Institutions And Agents Played in Long-Distance Exchange
- Part III The Role of Political Economy and Elite Control in Long-Distance Exchange
- Part IV Marxian And Post-Colonial Approaches as well as World System Theory in Relation to Gift Exchange and MacroRegional Exchange
- Part V Commentary on Contributions to This Volume
- Index
- References
Chapter Three - Stonehenge
Long-Distance Exchange in Late Neolithic Britain c. 3000–2450 bc
from Part I - Exchange and Social Evolution: Forms of Trade in Egalitarian, Transegalitarian, and Chiefdom Societies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 August 2022
Book contents
- Trade before Civilization
- Trade before Civilization
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Chapter One New Perspectives on Long-Distance Trade and Social Complexity
- Part I Exchange and Social Evolution: Forms of Trade in Egalitarian, Transegalitarian, and Chiefdom Societies
- Chapter Two Funnel Beaker Societies and Long-Distance Trade
- Chapter Three Stonehenge
- Chapter Four Bronze Age Long-Distance Exchange, Secret Societies, Rock Art, and the Supra Regional Interaction Hypothesis
- Chapter Five Rethinking the Prestige Economy and Its Role in Trade and Exchange
- Part II The Role That Specific Institutions And Agents Played in Long-Distance Exchange
- Part III The Role of Political Economy and Elite Control in Long-Distance Exchange
- Part IV Marxian And Post-Colonial Approaches as well as World System Theory in Relation to Gift Exchange and MacroRegional Exchange
- Part V Commentary on Contributions to This Volume
- Index
- References
Summary
Megalith construction is invariably associated with complex exchange networks, and this is undoubtedly the case with Stonehenge (Figure 3.1), built and rebuilt in five stages over a period of c. 1,300 years during the transition from stone to bronze (Darvill et al. 2012). Ethnographies living traditions of megalith building, such as in southern Madagascar, reveal exchanges between wife-giving and wife-taking lineages, between women of different lineages and clans, between quarry-workers and tomb-builders and between hosts and mobilized labour (Parker Pearson 2002, 2010). One of the major exchanges in such societies is that of labour for hospitality and for the blessing of the ancestors (Layard 1942; Hoskins 1986; Adams 2016). Hosts exchange wealth for honour and renown, both for the living and for the dead. In many cases, the exchanges are obligatory rather than voluntary, to satisfy those in power and to appease the supernatural.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Trade before CivilizationLong Distance Exchange and the Rise of Social Complexity, pp. 40 - 52Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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