The monograph Social Change in Ancient Peru: A Historical Study of the Principles of Economic Determinism in Inca Society presents the first published edition of a manuscript written by Mladen Lazić in 1977, which until now had remained unpublished. This exceptional work reveals a lesser-known field of inquiry pursued by one of Serbia’s most prominent sociologists, focused on the analysis of social structures and transformations in premodern civilizations. Drawing on sociological theories of development and the Marxist tradition of analyzing social formations, the author examines processes of social differentiation, the relationships between economic, political, and cultural institutions, as well as the mechanisms of power reproduction within the Inca Empire. The book uniquely combines historical and sociological interpretation, thereby raising the question of the applicability of sociological categories to societies outside the trajectory of Western modernization. In this way, the manuscript acquires not only documentary but also theoretical significance, as it demonstrates the author’s early aspiration to understand the dynamics of social change beyond the European context. Social Change in Ancient Peru thus represents a valuable contribution to the history of sociological thought in Yugoslavia and offers insight into the intellectual foundations of Lazić’s later theoretical orientation.