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Inequality on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America measured by house-floor area and storage capacity

Bibliographic Data

ID4842005
AuthorsKenneth M Ames (0000-0002-8800-4756, Portland State University), Colin Grier (Washington State University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume94
Issue376
Pages1042-1059
Publication date2020-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744
PublisherAntiquity Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15184/aqy.2020.128
OpenAlexW3042887966
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited26

Recent large-scale comparative archaeological studies of wealth differences have used Gini coefficients to assess inequality, employing house-floor area as a standardised, cross-cultural proxy for wealth. Two such studies have found that storage capacity produces higher Gini coefficients than floor area, suggesting that the latter measures household wealth, while the former reflects anticipated income. Here, the authors test these relationships using the floor area and storage capacity of excavated houses on the Lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. The results, which reflect those from previous studies, support the cross-cultural nature of the pattern, and show that storage capacity reflects food-surplus deployment strategies rather than anticipated household income

Agricultural economics · East coast · Economic inequality · Economics · Geography · Gini coefficient · Inequality · Physical geography · Proxy (statistics) · Scale (ratio) · Statistics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Mathematics

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Unique citing works19
Citations per year3,17
Citation span2020 - 2026 (7)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 15
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