A dominant view in economic anthropology is that farmers must overcome decreasing marginal returns in the process of intensification. However, it is difficult to reconcile this view with the emergence of urban systems, which require substantial increases in labor productivity to support a growing non-farming population. This quandary is starkly posed by the rise of Angkor (Cambodia, 9th–fourteenth centuries CE), one of the most extensive preindustrial cities yet documented through archaeology. Here, we leverage extensive documentation of the Greater Angkor Region to illustrate how the social and spatial organization of agricultural production contributed to its food system. First, we find evidence for supra-household-level organization that generated increasing returns to farming labor. Second, we find spatial patterns which indicate that land-use choices took transportation costs to the urban core into account. These patterns suggest agricultural production at Angkor was organized in ways that are more similar to other forms of urban production than to a smallholder system.

经济人类学的一个主流观点是，农民必须克服集约化过程中边际收益递减的问题。然而，这种观点很难与城市系统的出现相协调，城市系统需要大幅提高劳动生产率来支持不断增长的非农业人口。吴哥（柬埔寨，公元 9 至 14 世纪）的崛起明显地构成了这一困境，吴哥是迄今为止通过考古记录的最广泛的前工业城市之一。在这里，我们利用大吴哥地区的大量文献来说明农业生产的社会和空间组织如何为其粮食系统做出贡献。首先，我们发现了超家庭层面的组织产生了越来越多的农业劳动力回报的证据。第二，我们发现空间模式表明土地使用选择考虑了到城市核心的交通成本。这些模式表明，吴哥的农业生产组织方式更类似于其他形式的城市生产，而不是小农制度。