Labor Control and Emergent Stratification in Prehistoric Europe [and Comments and Reply]

Meaning in the Later Prehistoric Rock-Engravings of Mont Bégo, Alpes-Maritimes, France

“…We notice how often cattle have special importance in African societies of a nature that may bear comparison with later prehistoric Europe (Webster 1990). These beasts were symbols of fertility, and perhaps of maleness, even before their use as plough oxen in the European Neolithic -as can be seen, for instance, at Catal Hiiyiik.…”

Heterogeneity, power, and political economy: Some current research issues in the archaeology of Old World complex societies

“…Both materialist (Earle, 1991c) and explicitly marxist (Gilman, 1991) analyses emphasize that control over land and pastoral capital often can serve as the underpinnings of chiefly power, especially in systems of staple finance. Labor, mobilized either through kinship ties or ritual (Stein, 1994a), is recognized as economically important in the development of chiefdoms, although considerably less attention has been devoted to this factor of production (Earle, 1991b, p. 72;Webster, 1990).…”

Foundations of Social Inequality

“…Corporate administrators need good labor to exploit the resources they own. At a more general level, and Webster (1990) have emphasized the critical role that control over highquality labor plays in the emergence of nonegalitarian communities. Many ethnographies stress the strong, almost puritan work ethic promoted by aggrandizers at all levels of transegalitarian communities and the workoriented values sought by aggrandizers in recruiting supporters and tenants (see also Nairn and Strathern's film Kawelka).…”

“…In these models, some interest group within a society gains control of production, ultimately over labor Webster 1991) since labor is the ultimate limit on production in nonindustrial economies. This control may be overt and direct, or indirect.…”