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Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2020

Kenneth M. Ames  and
Colin Grier
Kenneth M. Ames
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Portland State University, USA
Colin Grier*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ [email protected]
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Abstract

Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships using the floor area and storage capacity of excavated houses on the Lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. The results, which reflect those from previous studies, support the cross-cultural nature of the pattern, and show that storage capacity reflects food-surplus deployment strategies rather than anticipated household income.

Keywords

Pacific NorthwestGini coefficientswealth inequalityfloor areastorage capacity
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 376 , August 2020 , pp. 1042 - 1059
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

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