Monetized Trade and Correlated Risk in Central California

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Life Is Risky: Human Behavioral Ecological Approaches to Variable Outcomes " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Isotopic evidence suggests use of shell bead money in central California developed during a time of high environmental uncertainty and decreasing social trust. Monetized exchange likely played a role in risk mitigation while maintaining independence of small groups. As a utility maximizing form of sharing, the role of trade in mitigating risk from variance that is uncorrelated in time and space is evident. This study explores the relationship between trade network function and parameters of correlation in resource variability. Observations of ethnographic exchange in California are consistent with the requirements of trade for overcoming correlated variability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Life Is Risky: Human Behavioral Ecological Approaches to Variable Outcomes

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32998