Production and Exchange - Essay Example

Much as this is still debatable, questions abound as to whether these were the only issues that existed and if these issues were the sole drivers for ancient activities (Hirth 203-207). The narrow view of the above archeological developments is the main reason that instigated the modern archaeologies in broadening the perspective and coming up with new approaches to archeological research which are able to put complexities that arose in human society into clear focus. They therefore found out that political economies were just among the mix of different strategies used by the ancient societies to mobilize resources which in essence did cross-cut through the production processes, service, and subsequent distributions to various societal sectors (Hirth 203-207).

The interest of archaeologies has therefore been elicited by the fact that they saw the need to try and identify the aforementioned mix of the various strategies so that this could work as a first platform for the reconstruction of the pre-historical political economy structures. They hence have to prove the fact that indeed, the elites within a given society would strive to gaining control on resources and mobilizing these resources from numerous unrelated sources as much as they can and in doing so, they end up invoking a high sense and set of principles that are put to practice (Kelly and Hurst 182-118).

The interest has further been compounded by the fact that these components or principles of society are the shapers of the political economy in that they take up the form of ideological issues, context, accumulation, and matrix control. The archeologists see these as the common mechanisms which are in essence applied in the creation of resources, manipulation of people and information, and the eventual expropriation practices which are normally applied to the societies that might exist in different times and having very unique levels of societal organization (Spencer 209-218).

Reconstructing the trade networks of the prehistoric periods could also help the archeologists in the understanding of some of the dynamics which are related to cultural interactions and inter-border changes that are being experienced in the world today (Kelly and Hurst 182-118). The above renewed interest in this reconstruction could be attributed to the fact that the past archeological activities only emphasized on the identification of evolving of political organizations instead of trying to reconstruct the relationships of economics which actually underscored them.

They pose an argument that past trade and exchanges during the prehistoric era were more than just mere production and consumption of goods and services. The argument put forward is, the exchange of good was also a cause for cultural and social experiences’ exchange (Spencer 209-218). How archaeologists determine the extent of prehistoric trade/exchange They use the ancient data such as obsidian discoveries which are analyzed to give certain evidences and assumptions. Interpretation of this Obsidian Dispersal is used by archeologists as the basic data that can illustrate trade and exchanges between communities during the prehistoric times.

As a general approach, the archeologists are able to point out the sources of origin of the archeological