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International Conference

Poverty in early civilizations: a comparative view

Organization:

Universität zu Köln
Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann
r.bussmann(at)uni-koeln.de

Cross-cultural research of early civilizations is traditionally focussed on elite culture and the central institutions of the societies compared. This conference explored on comparative grounds the social, cultural and economic disposition of people outside the elite. It contributed to questions of how poor people might surface in the available record, whether poverty is a corollary of social complexity and to what extent it challenges notions of civilization. The speakers covered a wide range of periods and societies, including ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, prehispanic Mexico, early and Buddhist India, late Bronze Age China, Greece and Rome in antiquity, and modern Africa.