Kent Vaughn Flannery is a distinguished North American archaeologist whose extensive research focuses on the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, with a particular emphasis on central and southern Mexico. His influential work also explores the origins of agriculture and village life in the Near East, pastoralists in the Andes, and cultural evolution. Flannery's analyses offer profound insights into the development of human societies and the complex interactions that shaped early civilizations. His contributions to archaeology and anthropology are fundamental to understanding our past.
Flannery and Marcus demonstrate that the rise of inequality was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables but resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group. Reversing the social logic can reverse inequality, they argue, without violence.