Social Archaeologies of Trade and Exchange: Exploring Relationships among People, Places, and Things (Arcaheology)

This volume focuses on the anthropological concept of trade as a fundamentally social activity concerned not only with the movement of goods, but also on the social context and consequences of that exchange. The distinguished contributors discuss trade on a range of scalesOCofrom a solitary confinement cell to trans-oceanic networksOCoin settings around the world and over the past 3000 years. They address themes such as exchange as a communicative act, the ways in which exchange transforms the relationship between people and things, the significance of agency and power in contexts of trade, and how sites of consumption and discard speak to processes of exchange. The volume merges traditional archaeological concerns about trade and exchange with more contemporary issues of agency, identity and social meaning." "This volume focuses on the anthropological concept of trade as a fundamentally social activity concerned not only with the movement of goods, but also, on the social context and consequences of that exchange. The distinguished contributors discuss trade on a range of scales--from an Australian solitary confinement cell to trans-oceanic networks--in settings around the world and over a span of 3000 years. They address themes such as exchange as a communicative act, the ways in which exchange transforms the relationship between people and things, the significance of agency and power in contexts of trade, and how sites of consumption and discard speak to processes of exchange. The volume merges traditional archaeological concerns about trade and exchange with more contemporary issues of agency, identity, and social meaning." ""This volume marks an important advance in trade and exchange studies and should be on the bookshelves of all archaeologists. It draws inspiration from its Processual antecedents and, at the same time, engages with new Postprocessual theories of agency, identity, meaning, and materiality in order to develop new ideas about the circulation of culture."--Robert W. Preucel, University of Pennsylvania"--Jacket Rethinking trade as a social activity : an introduction / Anna S. Agbe-Davies and Alexander A. Bauer Trade and interaction in archaeology / Alexander A. Bauer and Anna S. Agbe-Davies Landscapes of circulation in northwest Argentina : the workings of obsidian and ceramics during the first millennium A.D. / Marisa Lazzari Social aspects of the tobacco pipe trade in early colonial Virginia / Anna S. Agbe-Davies Arenas of action : trade as power, trade as identity / Kenneth G. Kelly Greeks and Phoenicians : perceptions of trade and traders in the early first millennium B.C. / Susan Sherratt Those who were traded : African-Bahamian archaeology and the slave trade / Laurie A. Wilkie and Paul Farnsworth Broads, studs and broken down daddies : the materiality of "playing" in the modern penitentiary / Eleanor Conlin Casella Buying a table in Erfelek : socialities of contact and community in the Black Sea region / Owen P. Doonan and Alexander A. Bauer Objects, social relations, and cultural motion / Greg Urban.