Resource Dependency Theory: A New Approach for Examining Trade Relationships

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Trade and Exchange" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Eighteenth-century trade and exchange in the Midwest has been characterized by give and take relationships (such as Richard White’s middle ground) between Native American groups and Euro-American traders. Looking for new ways to think about the nature of these relationships, and borrowing from business and organizational studies, resource dependency theory (RDT) has provided a better understanding of the power dynamics implicit in these economic exchanges. In this paper, several case studies are presented that show the efficacy of applying this framework, including both its capability for quantifying these relationships and providing more nuanced interpretations of the interactions occurring between these groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Trade and Exchange   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 30892