Trade, for many archaeologists, is the means a society employs to maintain or extend its relations and linkages with the outside world. They also see trade as a motor of social and political-economic development leading to and culminating in the rise of civilization and the formation of states. However, by focusing on the distribution of raw materials and artifacts, they typically assume the nature of trade rather than specifying the social relations that underlie the circulation of goods. Furthermore, they rarely treat the analytical category itself as problematicTrade, for many archaeologists, is the means a society employs to maintain or extend its relations and linkages with the outside world. They also see trade as a motor of social and political-economic leading to and culminating in the rise of civilization and the formation of states. However, by focusing on the distribution of raw materials and artifacts, they typically assume the nature of trade rather than specifying the social relations that underlie the circulation of goods. Furthermore, they rarely treat the analytical category itself as problematicTrade, for many archaeologists, is the a society employs to maintain or its relations and linkages with outside world. They also see trade as motor of social and political-economic leading to and culminating the rise of civilization and the states. , by focusing on distribution of raw materials and, typically the nature of trade rather than the social that underlie the circulation of ., they rarely treat category itself as problematic
