农业和文明起源

文明起源在考古学上是一个复杂的问题,牵涉到人类社会的许多方面。其中一个重要方面就是农业。本文试图强调农业对文明起源所起的推动作用,并提出一些有关农业考古的看法,希望对目前正在进行的中华文明探源工程和类似课题有所帮助。

Agriculture and the Origins of the Civilizations

Although archaeologists have long realized the significance of agriculture in the social development, they still see other factors, such as unfair trade, as the main driving forces of social developments. Inspired by the staple finance (or subsistence economy) and wealth finance (or political economy) theory of D'Altroy and Earle, this paper stresses that agriculture is the main source of wealth for ancient societies. This is borne out by the fact that the earliest civilizations emerge in plain areas where ...