The article reviews The Origins of Inequality, a collection of essays brought together by Andrea Cardarelli, Alberto Cazzella and Marcella Frangipane following a series of seminars on this theme at the University of Roma La Sapienza. The volume was formally presented at the university in May 2017 as the focus of a discussion of its theme by a philosopher (Giacomo Marramao), economic historian (Monika Poettinger), cultural anthropologist (Alessandro Lupo) and archaeologist (Graeme Barker). The review is an edited version of Graeme Barker’s contribution, which he structured in terms of the book‘s evidence of how the research agenda has developed in the 20 years since Gary Feinman summarised it in his final chapter in the book he edited with Douglas Price, The Foundations of Social Inequality (New York: Plenum Press, 1995).