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10,000-Year Study Links Wealth Inequality to Farming Practices and Governance

New research reveals how land-intensive agriculture and governance shaped economic disparities, offering lessons for modern inequality.

image: © WhitcombeRD | iStock
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Overview

  • A landmark study led by Amy Bogaard analyzed 47,000 ancient houses across 1,700 settlements to trace the origins of wealth inequality over 10,000 years.
  • The research shows that land-intensive farming practices, such as irrigation and animal traction, often led to entrenched economic disparities by enabling land monopolization.
  • Effective governance in societies like Teotihuacan and Mohenjo-daro mitigated extreme inequality, even in regions with scarce land resources.
  • The findings challenge the inevitability of wealth inequality, attributing it to localized ecological and institutional factors rather than farming alone.
  • An open-access database of ancient housing has been launched, providing a valuable resource for understanding historical inequality and informing contemporary policy solutions.