Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Sam Bowles

In this talk Dr. Bowles surveys archaeological evidence from Neolithic western Eurasia suggesting that while wealth inequality occurred, it was rare and ephemeral compared to the later enduring inequalities that persist to this day. He argues that a culture of "aggressive egalitarianism" may have thwarted enduring inequality until new farming technologies and elite power concentration in the Late Neolithic provided conditions for it to persist.



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