Timothy Earle is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Northwestern and was formerly Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. In addition to numerous edited volumes, his authored books include How Chiefs Came to Power (1997),Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology (1991), The Evolution of Human Societies: From Forager Group to Agrarian State (with A Johnson, 1987), Exchange Systems in Prehistory (1977). Earle is a current member of the Executive Committee of the AAA.

• Preface -- Political Economies of Chiefdoms and Agrarian States -- The Ecology and Politics of Primitive Valuables -- Chiefdoms in Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives -- Hawaiian Chiefdoms -- A Reappraisal of Redistribution -- Prehistoric Irrigation in the Hawaiian Islands -- Specialization and the Production of Wealth -- Style and Iconography as Legitimation in Complex Chiefdoms -- Andean Chiefdoms and the Inka Empire -- Staple Finance, Wealth Finance, and Storage in the Inka Political Economy -- Wealth Finance in the Inka Empire -- Exchange and Social Stratification in the Andes -- Status Distinction and Legitimation of Power as Reflected in Changing Patterns of Consumption in Late Prehispanic Peru -- Chiefdoms of Denmark -- The Bronze Age Economy of Thy -- Property Rights and the Evolution of Chiefdoms -- Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies