Over the past several decades, the study of production and exchange has taken a central place in research on the development of complex societies (Sabloff and Lamberg-Karlovsky 1975; Johnson 1973; Wright 1972; Earle and Ericson 1977; R. McC. Adams 1974a; Kohl 1978; Hirth 1984). These studies have been a welcome corrective to the anti-diffusionist views that had dominated anthropology and archaeology, in that they have shown that aspects of diffusion are a powerful force in generating cultural change. By focusing on production and exchange as they ramify on institutional structures (Adams 1974a: 240), they have made significant progress toward refining our understanding of their relationship to different socioeconomic settings.

This chapter falls within the above tradition, but it does so from a broadened perspective. First, I have used the term “exchange” in preference to “trade” since it encompasses a wider range of institutional settings than is presumed by trade. In particular, it leaves open the question of whether exchange relations are aligned with political, social or economic institutions. Second, I have distinguished between two types of diffusion: (1) the exchange of material goods and (2) the transmission of technical knowledge. By technical knowledge I refer to the steps taken in producing a product as they are discernible from archaeological materials; and by its transmission, the sharing of a particular technology within and between cultural groups. Although the two – exchange of material goods and transmission of technical knowledge – are obviously related, analytically separating them allows one to trace their shifting relations.