In this authoritative volume, leading researchers offer diverse theoretical perspectives and a wide-range of information on the beginnings and nature of social inequality in past human societies. This volume features numerous case studies from the Old and New World spanning foraging societies to agricultural groups and complex states.

I. Introduction.- 1 • Foundations of Prehistoric Social Inequality.- II. Theoretical Perspectives.- 2 • Pathways to Power: Principles for Creating Socioeconomic Inequalities.- 3 • Social Inequality, Marginalisation, and Economic Process.- 4 • The Cultural Foundations of Inequality in Households.- 5 • Social Inequality at the Origins of Agriculture.- III. Studies in Emerging Social Inequality.- 6 • Chiefly Power and Household Production on the Northwest Coast.- 7 • Equality and Hierarchy: Holistic Approaches to Understanding Social Dynamics in the Pueblo Southwest.- 8 • Social Inequality and Agricultural Resources in the Valle de la Plata, Colombia.- 9 • Prehistoric European Chiefdoms: Rethinking “Germanic” Societies.- IV. Conclusion.- 10 • The Emergence of Inequality: A Focus on Strategies and Processes.

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