ANT200H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Silk Road, Taoism, Neutron Activation Analysis
Document Summary
Trade the action of exchanging material goods or commodities: internal within a society (tightly related to social structure, external between societies (van be between individuals from different societies. Exchange all interpersonal contact, including the exchange of information, ideas, and genes: causes the spread of disease, ideas, values, language, culture. They are also related to political, social, and ritual systems. One source of cultural/social changes (interactions between societies and cultures) Early evidence: paleolithic groups trading for stone raw materials including obsidian. Small scale networks: operating locally, or within a region. Utilitarian goods: subsistence goods were usually exchanged locally, further for long-lasting items like spices, dried or salted foods, ceramics, textiles, etc. Non-utilitarian goods: luxury/prestige goods: can have functional values but most importantly show-off, made of rare/exotic materials that society ascribes high value to and/or required intensive labour costs during manufacture, ritual items. Forms of exchange indicate different levels of social organization.
