Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty (New Directions in Archaeology)

ISBN 10: 052161192X / ISBN 13: 9780521611923

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2004

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780521611923

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty (New Directions in Archaeology)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 052161192X
• ISBN 13: 9780521611923
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Bad Year Economics explores the role of risk and uncertainty in human economics within an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and ancient and modern history, the contributors range widely in time and space across hunting, farming and pastoralism, across ancient states, empires, and modern nation states. The aim, however, is a common one: to analyse in each case the structure of variability - particularly with regard to food supply - and review the range of responses offered by individual human communities. These responses commonly exploit various forms of mobility, economic diversification, storage, and exchange to deploy local or temporary abundance as a defence against shortage. Different levels of response are used at different levels of risk. Their success is fundamental to human survival and their adoption has important ramifications throughout cultural behaviour.

Book Description

Bad Year Economics explores the role of risk and uncertainty in human economics within an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and ancient and modern history, the contributors range widely in time and space across hunting, farming and pastoralism, across ancient states, empires, and modern nation states.