Transcript SWC1_s2

The American University of Rome
HSM 201 - Survey of Western Civilization
Session 2
The Beginnings of Civilization: The
Advent of the State and Empire.
I
States and Cities
• States are generally urban (organized into cities and rural
hinterlands)
• non-urban states (without cities) and urban non-states
• states are territorially defined and cover very large territories (not
one or a few settlements)
• economies based on centralized accumulation of capital through
taxation and tribute
• Social status determined by birth into one or another well defined
social classes
• states are highly stratified: ruling elite and professional, bureaucratic
government, with other lower strata: religious, administrative,
warrior, craft, commoner, slave classes
• have legitimate use of coercive force (law) and standing armies
• generally have certain features, such as monumental architecture
and public buildings, writing, sophisticated mathematics,
engineering, and calendar systems, state religion and arts, etc.`
The Urban Revolution
•
V. Gordon Childe was among the first to discuss the
development of ancient states in the Near/Middle East
• he defined states by a trait list: based on the presence of
certain key elements, most notably: cities, writing,
surplus, metallurgy, craft specialization
• he felt that technological innovations (e.g., metallurgy,
writing), craft specialization, and agricultural surplus
were key in the emergence of ancient states, but he
doesn’t really describe the process of state development
• as in his reconstruction of a “Neolithic Revolution” he felt
that states were an advancement over earlier cultural
forms, which improved life, and given the right conditions
a natural development for humankind
Wittfogel’s Hydraulic (Irrigation) Hypothesis
• In 1950s, Karl Wittfogel (Oriental Despotism) suggested a model for
the emergence of the major Oriental civilizations (China, India,
Mesopotamia).
• Unlike Childe, Wittfogel and later writers were interested in the
processes of state emergence, rather than assuming they were a
“natural” advancement
• mechanisms of large-scale irrigation closely linked to emergence of
state
• large-scale irrigation lead to greater planning and coordination
(water scheduling, calendrics, construction planning, labor
coordination), requiring strong leadership and administration
• irrigation agriculture provided more stable productivity and increased
wealth, and also required defense
• resulting in increasing differentiation (between leaders,
administrators, and other high-ranking individuals and commoners)
and inequality within society
Irrigation Hypothesis
Warfare and State Formation
• Carneiro’s circumscription theory:
• In areas of circumscribed agricultural land, population
growth leads to competition and conflict;
• This in turn leads to warfare;
• Subjugation of conquered polities by victors and develop
regional pyramidal (rank-order) hierarchy
• Seems to fit some cases (Egypt, Peru), but in many
cases populations were still small when early
chiefdoms/kingdoms emerged
Circumscription Theory (Coercion)
Flannery (1972, p.407): “Adams has produced a
theory which is described as "synthetic" by
Wright, since it combines both approaches
(managerial requirements and with conflicts
between social classes or polities.). For Adams
there are no "prime movers," but rather a whole
series of important variables with complex
interrelationships and feedback between them.
This model does not satisfy those who, like
Carneiro, feel that simple explanations are more
elegant than complex ones, but it appeals to
those of us who like circular rather than linear
causality.”
Multivariant systems in formation of the state
Flannery (1972, p.414): In a multivariant model, we might
see the state evolving through a long process of
centralization and segregation, brought about by …
promotions and linearizations, in response not only to
stressful socio-environmental conditions but also to stress
brought on by internal pathologies.
In promotion an institution may rise from its place in the
control hierarchy to assume a position in a higher level
(Examples: the evolution of the Sumerian "palace" out of the secular residences included
in southern Mesopotamian temple complexes at 3000 B.C., with its implications for the
evolution of kingship out of some kind of "priest-manager" role in the preceding chiefdom
stage; and 2. the transition from the so-called "theocratic“ first-generation civilizations to
their more "militaristic" successors.)
In linearization lower-order controls are repeatedly or
permanently bypassed by higher-order controls.
Collapse
Tainter (1988): economic reasons. “Increasing complexity
gives rise to diminishing marginal returns on investment;
when those returns become negative, the society has a
progressively diminishing capacity to withstand stress, and
is vulnerable to collapse.”
(from @
http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/2008/02/collapse-of-complex-societiesjoseph.html
Other explanations: Climate change, droughts, floods.
Q
What parts of a society are affected by a collapse event,
how long does it take? What structures remain? How long
does it take for a society to recoup and reorganize? What
does it take?
Writing
• By 3400 BC the first
evidence of writing
appears (pictographs)
• Sophisticated abstract
iconographic writing in
ancient Sumerian
Civilization called
cuneiform (“wedge”),
developed by ca. 2500
BC
• complex commercial
transactions (accounting)
are one theory for the
increasing development
of Sumerian writing
Quipu
Forma Urbis – Roma
Ancient map of Nippur,
c. 1500 BC
Flood Tablet
Assyrian
King Assurbanipal
7th Century BC
Recording historical
events
Religion / Temples
Trade
Social hierarchies I
Social hierarchies II
Regional hierarchies I
Regional hierarchies II
Moundville Sphere, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
In our course textbook
The questions of Chapter 1
• What do we really know about early hunter-gatherer life?
How do we know it?
• What changes allowed the transition from huntergatherer to sedentary societies?
• What were the principal influences behind the early
emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia?
• Why did a common religion not create peace among the
Sumerians?
• How did Hammurabi bind his empire together?
• In what ways did patters of development in early Egypt
differ from those in Sumer?
The interesting ones
> What is revolutionary about the Neolithic and
urban societies? Jericho…Çatal Hüyük…early “temples”
> Influences in emergence of early urban life in
Mesopotamia? Water, irrigation, control, religion mixed with politics
> Why did a common religion not create peace
among the Sumerians? ………………….
> Hammurabi strategies for binding the empire?
Administration and hierarchies…Organized territories…..Laws, practical, precise
> Comparing Early Egypt vs. Sumer?
but not divergent
…distinct trajectories