DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4159194.

Archaeologists, historians, and other social scientists systematically make the mistake of seeing social classes in precapitalist societies where they never existed. In precapitalist social stratification, kinship still plays a fundamental role in the structuring of society until its final disappearance with the emergence of capitalism. In fact, social classes are indissolubly linked to the development of capitalism. The strata we find before, that is, in precapitalist societies, are not social classes because their nature is very different (castes, estates). It is high time to correct this serious methodological error that calls into question the epistemological validity of the numerous investigations which continue to reproduce it.

Social classes; precapitalist societies.

Izquierdo-Egea, P. 2020.
¿Clases sociales en las sociedades precapitalistas?
Arqueología Iberoamericana 46: 111-117.

PURL: purl.org/aia/4611. ARK: ark:/49934/227.

Publication date: October 31, 2020.