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The power of prestige: competitive generosity and the emergence of rank societies in lowland Mesoamerica

1994; Cambridge University Press; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/cbo9780511598401.003

John E. Clark, Michael Blake,

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

Explanations of the origins of institutionalized social inequality and political privilege must resolve the central paradox of political life – why people cooperate with their own subordination and exploitation in noncoercive circumstances (Godelier 1986:13). In the following pages we address this paradox for an archaeological case from Mesoamerica.