Abstract
The use of consumption studies to examine the social as well as the utilitarian role played by ordinary domestic goods helps to explain why exchange is a compelling social phenomenon. Under conditions of emergent social complexity, exchange activities become even more important, because a diversity of goods enables an ever-growing number of individuals to demonstrate membership in cross-cutting social groups based on status, ethnicity, age, gender, and profession. An archaeological case study in central India, in which it was found that nonlocal goods were widespread in a medium-sized town in the early centuries A.D., provides data for the evaluation of consumption activities at the household level, in which “social subsistence” was manifest in the acquisition and use of a shared material culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES CITED
Alcock, S. E. (1991). Urban survey and the polis of Philus. Hesperia 60: 421–463.
Allen, K. M. S. (1992). Iroquois ceramic production: A case study of household-level organization. In Bey, G. J., III, and Pool, C. A. (eds.), Ceramic Production and Distribution: An Integrated Approach, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 133–154.
Altekar, A. S. [1982 (1960)]. The history of the Vakatakas. In Yazdani, G. (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Oriental Books, New Delhi, pp. 151–200.
Aniakor, C. (1996). Household objects and the philosophy of Igbo social space. In Arnoldi, M. J., Geary, C. M., and Hardin, K. L. (eds.), African Material Culture, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 214–242.
Begley, V. (1991). Ceramic evidence for pre-Periplus trade on the Indian coasts. In Begley, V., and de Puma, R. D. (eds.), Rome and India, University of Wisconsin, Madison, pp. 157–196.
Begley, V., and de Puma, R. D. (eds.) (1991). Rome and India, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Berdan, F. (1989). Trade and markets in precapitalist states. In Plattner, S. (ed.), Economic Anthropology, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, pp. 78–107.
Binford, L. R. (1962). Archaeology as anthropology. American Antiquity 28 (2): 217–225.
Boussac, M.-F., and Salles, J.-F. (eds.) (1995). Athens, Aden, Arikamedu: Essays on the Interrelations Between India, Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean, Manohar, New Delhi.
Braudel, F. [1992 (1979)]. The Wheels of Commerce, Reynolds, S. (trans.), University of California Press, Berkeley.
Brown, J. A. (ed.) (1971). Approaches to the social dimensions of mortuary practices. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 25.
Brumfiel, E. M. (1987). Elite and utilitarian crafts in the Aztec state. In Brumfiel, E., and Earle, T. K. (eds.), Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 102–118.
Brumfiel, E. M., and Earle, T. K. (1987). Specialization, exchange and complex societies: An introduction. In Brumfiel, E., and Earle, T. K. (eds.), Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–9.
Campbell, C. (1995). The sociology of consumption. In Miller, D. (ed.), Acknowledging Consumption, Routledge, London, pp. 96–126.
Casson, L. (ed.) (1989). The Periplus Maris Erythraei, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Conkey, M. (1978). Style and information in cultural evolution: Toward a predictive model for the Paleolithic. In Redman, C. L., Berman, M. J., Curtin, E. V., Langhorne, W. T., Jr., Versaggi, N. M., and Wanser, J. C. (eds.), Social Archaeology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 61–85.
Costin, C. L. (1991). Craft specialization: Issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.), Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 3, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 1–56.
Deglurkar, G. B., and Lad, G. P. (1992). Megalithic Raipur (1985–1990), Deccan College and Post-Graduate Institute, Pune.
Deo, S. B. (1970). Excavations at Takalghat and Khapa (1968–69), Nagpur University, Nagpur.
Deo, S. B., and Dhavalikar, M. K. (1968). Paunar Excavation 1967, Nagpur University, Nagpur.
Dikshit, M. G. (1955). Tripuri 1952, Government of Madhya Pradesh.
Dikshit, M. G. (1968). Excavations at Kaundinyapura, Director of Archives and Archaeology, Bombay.
Douglas, M., and Isherwood, B. [1996 (1979)]. The World of Goods, Routledge, London.
Earle, T. K. (1990). Style and iconography as legitimation in complex chiefdoms. In Conkey, M. W., and Hastorf, C. A. (eds.), The Uses of Style in Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 73–81.
Fine, B., and Leopold, E. (1990). Consumerism and the Industrial Revolution. Social History 15 (2): 151–179.
Finlay, R. (1992). Portuguese and Chinese maritime imperialism: Camoes's Lusiads and Luo Maodeng's Voyage of the San Bao Eunuch. Comparative Studies in Society and History 34(2): 225–241.
Gledhill, J., and Larsen, M. (1982). The Polanyi paradigm and a dynamic analysis of archaic states. In Renfrew, C., Rowlands, M., and Seagraves, B. (eds.), Theory and Explanation in Archaeology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 197–229.
Glennie, P. (1995). Consumption within historical studies. In Miller, D. (ed.), Acknowledging Consumption, Routledge, London, pp. 164–203.
Gottdiener, M. (1995). Postmodern Semiotics: Material Culture and the Forms of Postmodern Life, Blackwell, Oxford.
Graham, R. J. D. (1913–1914). Preliminary note on the classification of rice in the Central Provinces. Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India (Botanical Series) 6: 209–229.
Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 91(3): 481–510.
Grant, C. [1984 (1870)]. The Gazetteer of the Central Provinces of India, 2nd ed., Usha Jain, New Delhi.
Gregory, C. A. (1982). Gifts and Commodities, Academic Press, London.
Halstead, P. (1996). Pastoralism or household herding? Problems of scale and specialization in early Greek animal husbandry. World Archaeology 28(1): 20–42.
Hamilton, G. G., and Lai, C.-K. (1989). Consumerism without capitalism: Consumption and brand names in late imperial China. In Rutz, H. J., and Orlove, B. S. (eds.), The Social Economy of Consumption, University Press of America, Lanham, MD, pp. 253–279.
Inden, R. (1990). Imagining India, Blackwell, Oxford.
IAR (Indian Archaeology, a Review) (1961–1962). Archaeological Survey of India.
Jain, J. P. (1964). The Jaina Sources of the History of Ancient India (100 BC to AD 900), Munshi Ram Manohar Lal, Delhi.
Johnson, A. W., and Earle, T. K. (1987). The Evolution of Human Societies, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Kajale, M. D. (1988). Ancient plant economy at chalcolithic Tuljapur Garhi, District Amraoti, Maharasthra. Current Science (Bangalore) 57(5): 377–379.
Keay, S., Crieghton, J., and Jordan, D. (1991). Sampling ancient towns. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10(3): 371–383.
Lightfoot, C. S. (1989). A Catalog of Glass Vessels in Afyon Museum, British Archaeological Reports International Series 530.
Liu, X. (1988). Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Regional Exchanges AD 1–600, Oxford University Press, Delhi.
Macdonald, S. (1996). Introduction. In Macdonald, S., and Fyfe, G. (eds.), Theorizing Museums: Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 1–18.
Mattingly, D. J. (1992). The field survey: Strategy, methodology and preliminary results. In Mattingly, D., and Ben Lazreg, N. (eds.), Leptiminus (Lamta): A Roman Port City in Tunisia, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 4: 89–114.
McKendrick, N. (1982). The consumer revolution of eighteenth-century England. In McKendrick, N., Brewer, J., and Plumb, J. H. (eds.), The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 9–33.
Miller, D. (1985). Artefacts as Categories, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Miller, D. (1987). Material Culture and Mass Consumption, Basil Blackwell, London.
Miller, D. (1990). Fashion and ontology in Trinidad. Culture and History 7: 49–77.
Miller, D. (1995). Consumption and commodities. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 141–161.
Mirashi, V. V. (1981). The History and Inscriptions of the Satavahanas and the Western Kshatrapas, Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture, Bombay.
Mohanty, R. K., and Joshi, P. S. (1996). The megalithic problem of Vidarbha: Retrospect and prospect. In Margabandhu, C., and Ramachandran, K. S. (eds.), Spectrum of Indian Culture, Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, pp. 157–169.
Mohanty, R. K., and Walimbe, S. R. (1996). An investigation into the mortuary practices of Vidarbha megalithic cultures. In Margabandhu, C., and Ramachandran, K. S. (eds.), Spectrum of Indian Culture, Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, pp. 136–149.
Morrison, K. D. (1990). Patterns of urban occupation: Surface collections at Vijayanagara. In Taddei, M., and Callieri, P. (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 1987, IsMEO, Rome, pp. 1111–1126.
Morrison, K. D. (1994). The intensification of production: Archaeological approaches. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 111–159.
Mukherjee, B. N. (1992). A note on the original habitat and kingdom of the Vakatakas. In Shastri, A. M. (ed.), The Age of the Vakatakas, Harman, New Delhi, pp. 21–26.
Orlove, B. S., and Rutz, H. J. (1989). Thinking about consumption: A social economy approach. In Rutz, H. J., and Orlove, B. S. (eds.), The Social Economy of Consumption, University Press of America, Lanham, MD, pp. 1–57.
Orton, N. P. (1991). Red Polished Ware in Gujarat: A catalogue of twelve sites. In Begley, V., and de Puma, R. E. (eds.), Rome and India, University of Wisconsin, Madison, pp. 46–81.
O'Shea, J. M. (1984). Mortuary Variability: An Archaeological Investigation, Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Parasher-Sen, A. (ed.) (1993). Social and Economic History of Early Deccan, Manohar, New Delhi.
Parkin, D. (1993) Nemi in the modern world: Return of the exotic? Man (n.s.) 28(1): 79–99.
Plattner, S. (1989a). Introduction. In Plattner, S. (ed.), Economic Anthropology, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, pp. 1–20.
Plattner, S. (1989b). Markets and marketplaces. In Plattner, S. (ed.), Economic Anthropology, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, pp. 171–208.
Polanyi, K. [1975 (1951)]. Traders and trade. In Sabloff, J. A., and Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (eds.), Ancient Civilization and Trade, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 133–154.
Pollock, S., Pope, M., and Coursey, C. (1996). Household production at the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh, Iraq. American Journal of Archaeology 100(4): 683–698.
Preteceille, E., and Terrail, J.-P. (1985). Capitalism, Consumption and Needs, Mathews, S. (trans.), Basil Blackwell, London.
Ramesh, K. V. (1992). On the Vakatakas and their inscriptions. In Shastri, A. M. (ed.), The Age of the Vakatakas, Harman, New Delhi, pp. 27–32.
Rao, G. V. [1982 (1960)]. The pre-Satavahana and Satavahana periods. In Yazdani, G. (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Oriental Books, New Delhi, pp. 65–147.
Ray, H. P. (1985). Trade in the western Deccan under the Satavahanas. Studies in History (new series) 1(1): 15–35.
Ray, H. P. (1986). Monastery and Guild: Commerce Under the Satavahanas, Oxford University Press, Delhi.
Raychaudhuri, H. [1982 (1960)]. The geography of the Deccan. In Yazdani, G. (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Oriental Books, New Delhi, pp. 1–63.
Renfrew, C. (1975). Trade as action at a distance. In Sabloff, J. A., and Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (eds.), Ancient Civilization and Trade, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 3–59.
Rice, P. M. (1981). Evolution of specialized pottery production: A trial model. Current Anthropology 22(3): 219–240.
Rice, P. M. (1987a). Pottery Analysis, University of Chicago, Chicago.
Rice, P. M. (1987b). Economic change in the Lowland Maya Late Classic period. In Brumfiel, E., and Earle, T. K. (eds.), Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 76–85.
Rogers, J. D. (1990). Objects of Change, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Sackett, J. R. (1977). The meaning of style in archaeology: A general model. American Antiquity 42: 369–380.
Sahlins, M. (1972). Stone Age Economics, Aldine, Chicago.
Sankalia, H. D, Deo, S. B., Ansari, Z. D., and Ehrhardt, S. (1960). From History to Prehistory at Nevasa (1954–56), Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Poona.
Sarkar, H. (1987). Emergence of urban centres in Early Historical Andhradesa. In Pande, B. M., and Chattopadhyaya, B. D. (eds.), Archaeology and History, Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, pp. 631–641.
Schiffer, M. B. (1987). Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Schiffer, M. B. (1991). The Portable Radio in American Life, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Schiffer, M. B., and Skibo, J. M. (1997). The explanation of artifact variability. American Antiquity 62(1): 27–50.
Schneider, J. (1977). Was there a precapitalist world-system? Journal of Peasant Studies 6(1): 20–29.
Schopen, G. (1997). Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu.
Sidebotham, S. E. (1989). Ports of the Red Sea and the Arabia-India trade. In French, D. H., and Lightfoot, C. S. (eds.), The Eastern Frontier of the Roman Empire, British Archaeological Reports International Series 553, Oxford, pp. 485–513.
Smith, A. [1976 (1776)]. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Clarendon, Oxford.
Smith, C. A. (1976). Exchange systems and the spatial distribution of elites: The organization of stratification in agrarian societies. In Smith, C. A. (ed.), Regional Systems, Vol. II: Social Systems, Academic Press, New York, pp. 309–374.
Smith, M. L. (1996a). Regional exchange in the central Indian subcontinent in the early centuries A.D.: Stable isotopes and marine-shell provenience. Presented at the Society for American Archaeology 61st Annual Meeting, New Orleans.
Smith, M. L. (1996b). Early Historic and early modern: Reconstructing ancient economic landscapes from nineteenth-century documents. Presented at the 25th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI.
Smith, M. L. (1997). Strong Economies, Weak Polities: The Archaeology of Central India in the Early Centuries A.D., University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.
Smith, M. L. (in press). Economic and social interactions at an Early Historic site: Recent fieldwork at Kaundinyapura, India. In South Asian Archaeology 1997, Conference Proceedings of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists.
Stark, B. L. (1985). Archaeological identification of pottery-production locations: Ethnoarchaeological and archaeological data in Mesoamerica. In Nelson, B. A. (ed.), Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 158–194.
Subramanian, N. (1972). History of Tamilnad (to AD 1336), Koodal, Madurai.
Thapar, R. (1992). Patronage and the community. In Miller, B. S. (ed.), The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture, Oxford University Press, Delhi, pp. 19–34.
Thapar, R. (1997). Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, new rev. ed. Oxford University Press, Delhi.
Tringham, R., and Krstić, D. (1990). Conclusion: Selevac in the wider context of European prehistory. In Tringham, R., and Krstić, D. (eds.), Selevac: A Neolithic Village in Yugoslavia, Monumenta Archaeologia Vol. 15, Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, Los Angeles, pp. 567–616.
Turner, T. S. (1980). The social skin. In Cherfas, J., and Lewin, R. (eds.), Not Work Alone, Temple Smith, London, pp. 112–140.
Vishnu-Mittre (1966). Kaundinyapur plant economy in protohistoric and historic times. The Palaeobotanist (Lucknow) 15(1,2): 152–156.
Wallerstein, I. (1974). The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World—Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Academic Press, San Diego.
Warde, A. (1990). Introduction to the sociology of consumption. Sociology 24(1): 1–4.
Wattenmaker, P. (1994). State formation and the organization of domestic craft production at third-millennium B.C. Kurban Hoyuk, southeast Turkey. In Schwartz, G. M., and Falconer, S. E. (eds.), Archaeological Views from the Countryside, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, pp. 109–120.
Wayman, A., and Rosen, E. (1990). The rise of Mahayana Buddhism and inscriptional evidence at Nagarjunakonda. Indian Journal of Buddhist Studies 2(1): 49–65.
West, S. M. (1992). Temper, Thermal Shock and Cooking Pots: A Study of Tempering Materials and Their Physical Significance in Prehistoric and Traditional Cooking Pottery, M.S. thesis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Arizona.
Whittaker, J. C., Ferg, A., and Speth, J. D. (1988). Arizona bifaces of Wyoming chert. The Kiva 53(4): 321–334.
Wiessner, P. (1983). Style and social information in Kalahari San Projectile points. American Antiquity 49: 253–276.
Wilk, R. (1990). Consumer goods as dialogue about development. Culture and History 7: 79–100.
Wolf, E. R. (1966). Peasants, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Wright, H. T. (1984). Pre-state political formations. In Earle, T. (ed.), The Evolution of Complex Societies: The Harry Hoijer Lectures for 1982, Undena Press, Malibu, CA, pp. 41–78.
Yarlagadda, T. (1993). Social groups and economic change 7th–13th century A.D. In Parasher-Sen, A. (ed.), Social and Economic History of Early Deccan, Manohar, New Delhi, pp. 158–239.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smith, M.L. The Role of Ordinary Goods in Premodern Exchange. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6, 109–135 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021917318055
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021917318055