Richard E Blanton

Biographic Data

ID77563
NAMERichard E Blanton
GIVEN NAMESRichard E
FAMILY NAMEBlanton
SIGNATUREBLANTON R E
AFFILIATIONSPurdue University West Lafayette
ORCID0000-0001-6655-7336
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS72
TOTAL CITATIONS1198
AUTHOR COUNT71
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1975
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX15

  • Food, markets, and governance: A new lens on the emergence of collective institutions

    Open AccessRichard E Blanton, G M FeinmanARTICLEFrontiers in Human Dynamics2025Cited by: 1References: 26

    We employ access to food as an analytical lens to compare and explore the interplay between economic practices and political change in three premodern complex societies: Early Imperial China (primarily the Han Dynasty), the Athenian democracy, and Medieval to Early Modern England. Explicitly framed by the theory of political collective action and economists’ notions of capital and competitive markets, we illustrate how food economies had a key ro…

  • Aztec Religious Economic Ethics

    Richard E BlantonCHAPTERThe Oxford Handbook of Religion…2024

    This chapter addresses pre-Hispanic Aztec religion and philosophy in relation to economic ethics during the period roughly 500 years before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521 ce. This time period is of interest for the subject matter of this volume given the relative abundance of information about religion and its social outcomes in a pre-Hispanic society. By comparison with other Mesoamerican regions and time periods, in Aztec society religi…

  • New views on price-making markets and the capitalist impulse: Beyond Polanyi

    Open AccessRichard E Blanton, G M FeinmanARTICLEFrontiers in Human Dynamics2024Cited by: 4References: 62

    Anthropologists have persistently diminished the importance of the market and marketplace exchange in premodern, preindustrial times. This strident anti-market mentality, derived largely from the writings of Karl Polanyi, underpins an ideological and politicized argument that neither sets useful guideposts to advance anthropological research, nor does it yield the necessary insights or empirically valid foundations to comprehend the deep historic…

  • Collective action, premodern good government, and the transformation from subaltern to politically engaged citizenry

    Open AccessRichard E Blanton, Lane F Fargher-NavarroARTICLEFrontiers in Human Dynamics2024Cited by: 1References: 38

    Research inspired by collective action theory has provoked a rethinking of premodern governance, including state formation. We briefly summarize key elements of this theoretical turn, first, by demonstrating that, as predicted by the existing theory, political collective action is enhanced when the provision of good government motivates taxpayer compliance. Beyond that key process, our cross-cultural comparative investigation identified a suite o…

  • Ancient Oaxaca: The Monte Albán State

    G M Feinman, Linda M Nicholas et al.BOOKAncient Oaxaca2022

  • Reframing the Foundation of Monte Albán

    G M Feinman, Richard E Blanton et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Archaeology2022

    Monte Albán was founded in the Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico) around 500 bc and grew quickly in size and monumentality. We offer new theoretical perspectives on the dynamic processes associated with this transitional episode of change. Adopting a multiscalar approach, we frame this transition and the rapid growth of the hilltop centre as an innovative social response to defensive concerns as well as other factors that offered new opportunities both to…

  • Collective Action, Good Government, and Democracy in Tlaxcallan, Mexico: An Analysis Based on Demokratia

    Open AccessLane F Fargher, Richard E Blanton et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Political Science2022Cited by: 1References: 38

    For nearly 200 years, Western social science has argued that good government, embodied in democracy, originated exclusively in Western Europe and was introduced to the rest of the world. This Eurocentric vision has profoundly shaped social science's approach to the non-Western World (and pre-modern Europe). Importantly, distinct theories (e.g., Oriental Despotism, Substantivism, etc.) were developed to address premodern state-building in Asia, th…

  • The Emergence of Monte Albán: A Social Innovation That Lasted a Millennium

    Open AccessG M Feinman, Richard E Blanton et al.CHAPTERPower from below in Premodern…2021

    Monte Albán, one of Mexico’s earliest cities, was founded in the Valley of Oaxaca around 500 bc as a central fulcrum in a dynamic episode of change that grounds subsequent regional history. Proposed explanations for the establishment of Monte Albán are numerous and diverse; yet, to date, they tend to emphasize only the agency of the elite. Here, we offer new theoretical perspectives on the dynamic processes associated with this multifaceted, tran…

  • The Fiscal Economy of Good Government: Past and Present

    Richard E Blanton, Lane F Fargher et al.ARTICLECurrent Anthropology2021Cited by: 20References: 117

    We demonstrate that good government, similar to modern liberal democracies, emerged apart from Western history or influence. This finding is counter to the conventional understanding that democratic state building is an expression of Western-inspired modernity. Yet, we argue, irrespective of cultural context or time period, good government policies and practices will be instituted when revenues that underpin governance are jointly produced, as pr…

  • Moral Collapse and State Failure: A View From the Past

    Open AccessRichard E Blanton, G M Feinman et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Political Science2020Cited by: 5References: 26

    We have found that collective action theory, as developed by Margaret Levi and others, provides a new direction for the study of growth and decline of premodern states. By following this lead, we have challenged the traditional consensus that despotic rule characterized most premodern states, demonstrating instead the existence of a state-building process in which fiscal economies of joint production fostered the implementation of good government…

  • Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica: Comparing Open and Restricted Markets at Tlaxcallan, Mexico, and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize

    Open AccessMarc D Marino, Lane F Fargher et al.ARTICLELatin American Antiquity2020Cited by: 7References: 64

    In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, "restricted markets" formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and "open markets…

  • Wealth inequality, social stratification, and the built environment in Late Prehispanic Highland Mexico: A comparative analysis with special emphasis on Tlaxcallan

    Open AccessLane F Fargher, Ricardo R Antorcha-Pedemonte et al.ARTICLEJournal of Anthropological…2020Cited by: 10References: 86

  • The Archaeology of Intermediate-Scale Socio-Spatial Units in Urban Landscapes

    Open AccessLane F Fargher, Richard E Blanton et al.ARTICLEArcheological Papers of the…2019Cited by: 1References: 43

    In this chapter, we argue that research on intermediate-scale socio-spatial units can benefit from collective action theory. Accordingly, we posit that institutions developed to promote cooperation help shape urban landscapes. A cross-cultural sample of 30 premodern states from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, Europe, Mesoamerica, and South America is used to evaluate this hypothesis. The results indicate that highly collective citi…

  • Between Marx and Locke: Approaching Early Complex Societies

    Open AccessRichard E BlantonARTICLEAntiquity2018Cited by: 1

    I viewed this review project as an opportunity to assess the degree to which archaeologists have been able to transcend what Gary Feinman (Eurasia at the dawn of history, p. 146) refers to as "impenetrable academic silos and rigid adherence to entrenched ideas". Happily, I found ample evidence of transcendence, with the exception of Modes of production and archaeology. Historians properly recognise Karl Marx as an important contributor to Western…

  • How Humans Cooperate: Confronting the Challenges of Collective Acti

    Richard E Blanton, Lane F FargherBOOKHow Humans Cooperate2016

  • Aztec State-Making, Politics, and Empires

    Lane F Fargher, Richard E Blanton et al.BOOKThe Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs2016Cited by: 2

    "The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, the first of its kind, provides a current overview of recent research on the Aztec empire, the best documented prehispanic society in the Americas. Chapters span from the establishment of Aztec city-states to the encounter with the Spanish empire and the Colonial period that shaped the modern world. Articles in the Handbook take up new research trends and methodologies and current debates. The Handbook articles…

  • Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 1: Archaeology

    E Wyllys Andrews, Richard E Blanton et al.BOOKSupplement to the Handbook of…2015

  • Market cooperation and the evolution of the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world-system

    Richard E Blanton, Lane F FargherCHAPTERRoutledge handbook of world-systems…2015

  • The geopolitics of obsidian supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan: A portable X-ray fluorescence study

    Open AccessJohn K Millhauser, Lane F Fargher et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2015Cited by: 21References: 47

  • Houses and Households: A Comparative Study

    Richard E BlantonBOOKHouses and Households2013

  • Houses and Households: A Comparative Study

    Richard E BlantonBOOKHouses and Households2013

  • Cities and Urbanism in Prehispanic Mesoamerica

    Richard E BlantonCHAPTERThe Oxford Handbook of…2012

    Cities became an important and endurable characteristic of Mesoamerican civilization after 500 bc. This aspect of the Mesoamerican past was not widely recognized until the 1960s and 1970s when settlement-pattern archaeologists initiated field research at Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, and Dzibilchaltún. Since these pioneering efforts, archaeologists and ethnohistorians not only have amassed an impressive body of data, but they also have turned to othe…

  • Science or Ideology? A Review of The Archaeology of Politics and Power by Charles Maisels

    Open AccessRichard E BlantonARTICLECliodynamics The Journal of…2011

    A Review of The Archaeology of Politics and Power: Where, When, and Why the First States Formed by Charles Maisels (Oxbow Books, 2010)

  • Cultural Transformation, Art, and Collective Action in Polity Building

    Open AccessRichard E BlantonARTICLECross-Cultural Research2011Cited by: 1References: 26

    Data coded from a worldwide sample of 30 premodern states demonstrate that collective action was an important social force in political regime building across civilizational traditions, regions, and time periods. Collectivity brought advantages, for example, overall increases in material standard of living, but also entailed the potential for cooperation problems such as free riding and agency. These problematic aspects of collectivity were addre…

  • Alternative Pathways to Complexity

    Lane Fargher, Richard E Blanton et al.BOOKAlternative Pathways to Complexity

    "[T]he volume represents an important contribution to the examination of issues for which Blanton has furthered scholarship, organized as three sections with cases from Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies." ?American Antiquity. Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the r…