Social Archaeologies of Trade and Exchange: Exploring Relationships Among People, Places, and Things

This volume focuses on the anthropological concept of trade as a fundamentally social activity concerned not only with the movement of goods, but also, on the social context and consequences of that exchange. The distinguished contributors discuss trade on a range of scales---from an Australian solitary confinement cell to trans-oceanic networks---in settings around the world and over a span of 3000 years. They address themes such as exchange as a communicative act, the ways in which exchange transforms the relationship between people and things, the significance of agency and power in contexts of trade, and how sites of consumption and discard speak to processes of exchange. The volume merges traditional archaeological concerns about trade and exchange with more contemporary issues of agency, identity, and social meaning.

"This volume marks an important advance in trade and exchange studies and should be on the bookshelves of all archaeologists. It draws inspiration from its Processual antecedents and, at the same time, engages with new Postprocessual theories of agency, identity, meaning, and materiality in order to develop new ideas about the circulation of culture."---Robert W. Preucel, University of Pennsylvania

Alexander A. Bauer is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Queens College, Cuny.
Anna S. Agbe-Davies is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.