Klassen Sarah, Ortman Scott G, Lobo José, Evans Damian
Archaeological Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Anthropology and Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA.
J Archaeol Method Theory. 2022;29(3):763-794. doi: 10.1007/s10816-021-09535-5. Epub 2021 Sep 23.
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.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-021-09535-5.
经济人类学中的一个主流观点是，农民在集约化过程中必须克服边际收益递减的问题。然而，很难将这一观点与城市系统的出现相协调，因为城市系统需要大幅提高劳动生产率以养活不断增长的非农业人口。柬埔寨吴哥（公元9世纪至14世纪）的崛起鲜明地提出了这一困境，吴哥是通过考古记录的最庞大的前工业化城市之一。在此，我们利用吴哥大区域的大量文献资料来说明农业生产的社会和空间组织如何促成其食物系统。首先，我们发现了超家庭层面组织的证据，这种组织带来了农业劳动回报的增加。其次，我们发现了空间模式，这些模式表明土地利用选择考虑到了通往城市核心区的运输成本。这些模式表明，吴哥的农业生产组织方式与其他城市生产形式更为相似，而非与小农系统相似。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10816-021-09535-5获取的补充材料。
