Explaining Prehistoric Thailand’s 2000 Year Resilient Growth Economy and Peaceful Society: a Bottom-up Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

After decades of archaeologists interpreting Thailand’s metal age development using top down approaches drawn from 1980s archaeological theory, it has become evident they do not work for this region. During the course of interpreting metal assemblages from Ban Chiang and related sites in northeast Thailand, alternative perspectives emerged for how to more aptly interpret the resilient peaceful prehistoric societies dating from approximately 2100 B.C.–A.D. 300. A model is proposed applying "Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage" that focuses on "Regional Reciprocal Exchange Networks". These exchange networks existed from the pre-metal period through the metal age and underpinned heterarchical political and economic systems whereby goods and valuables were exchanged among decentralized networks of communities. In this kind of economy, communities invest in product specialization in order to engage in the regional exchange network and gain access to products they either cannot produce, cannot produce at sufficient quantities to meet local needs and demand, or choose not to produce because they see their efforts are better spent in producing other products to exchange for desired goods made in other villages or regions. Community agency and investment promoted peaceful conflict resolution as well as regional economic growth for over two millennia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24743