Comparing ancient inequalities: the challenges of comparability, bias and precision

• Autores: Mattia Fochesato, Amy Bogaard, Samuel Bowles
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 93, Nº 370, 2019, págs. 853-869
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • Archaeological evidence provides the only basis for comparative research charting wealth inequality over vast stretches of the human past. But researchers are confronted by a number of problems: small sample sizes; variable indicators of wealth (including individual grave goods, the area of household dwellings or storage spaces); overrepresentation of the wealthy, or invisibility of those without wealth; and vastly different population sizes. Here, the authors develop methods for estimating the Gini coefficient—a measure of wealth inequality—that address these challenges, allowing them to provide a set of 150 comparable estimates of ancient wealth inequality.