6. Different Styles of Civilization

Mesopotamia and Egypt

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Outline

• 1) Possible causes of the hierarchical state– Presupposes agriculture and its early development

• 2) Causes of the first states: • 3) Plusses and minuses of kinship societies

and hierarchical states– L or U theories continued

• 4) Why do people tolerate states?– geography of the Civilization Trap

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Slash and burn agriculture

• Hunting becomes more and more precarious, unsuccessful – due to climate change

• Cooperative social relations continue• Hoe agriculture, women’s work• Use of ash -- limitations • Nomadic way of life continues – Life is difficult

• Today: Brazil – Amazon rain forests (and hamburgers)

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Flood plains of great rivers

• Simple tools (hoe) • Natural, regular fertilization of soil by flooding

rivers• Abundant harvest –> surplus of grain– Stored in granaries– Life is easy (easier)

• Social level: Continuation of ancient cooperative kinship system

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Hymn to the Nile

• Praise to thee, O Nile, that issueth from the earth, and cometh to nourish Egypt. . . .

• That maketh barley and createth wheat, so that he may cause the temples to keep festivals. . . .

• If he be sluggish . . . millions of men perish.• Offer is made to every other god as is done for

the Nile . . .

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Location of Garden of Eden

• “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. . . . And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Genesis 2:8

• From slash-and-burn poverty to abundance of paradise?

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What caused the “fall”?

• Rise of the hierarchical state– 1) requirements of large populations?– 2) military necessity?– 3) requirements for organizing irrigation systems? – 4) exploitation of the majority by a minority?

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1) Large Populations without States

• Difficulties of uniting different kinship societies. But not impossible

• Hunter-gatherer assemblies of local groups• Tiv people in Africa united 1 million• Iroquois Federation united separate tribes• Hence: large populations can be organized

without a “state”

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2) Military necessity?

• 1) Traditional system of military: armed men of the kinship group– American Indian military power: not separate

army

• 2) “State” = military power over the people (Gilgamesh)

• Hence: defense is possible without a “state”

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3) Social problems of organizing irrigation

• Separate villages multiply along river• Population growth > move away from river• > need for cooperation between kinship

groups• It is possible to have cooperation without a

“state”– Iroquois voluntary union of five nations – Maintains democratic constitution

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4) Exploitation of surplus

• 1) Production of surplus – based on higher productivity of simple labor– Due to natural fertility of flooding river

• 2) Surplus as target– From the outside > military protection needed– From within the village > from the military

protectors themselves• 3) Chief chosen by people > rules over them

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Rise of the hierarchical stateTwo paths

• 1) Traditional system of community control– Military leader is subordinate to community– Iroquois: women elders in charge

• 2) Conquest of the community – From within the community: the military leader seizes

control, overthrows the old kinship order (Legal state of the West—positive law replaces kinship traditions)

– From outside the community: another kinship community takes over, conquers the first (neo-kinship state of the East)

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Pluses of H-G societies

• 1) relative equality, – including gender equality

• 2) democratic organization• 3) harmony with nature– But recall ecological catastrophe at end of last ice

age.

• Are we returning to these features?– L theory or U theory?

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Minuses of hunter-gatherer communities

• 1) Small groups divided from one another– Sporadic wars

• 2) Simple technology• 3) No scientific knowledge of the larger

ecological laws

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Pluses of “civilization”

• 1) Unifies people into larger and larger groups– Importance of trade

• 2) Development of technology (often through requirements of warfare)– Technology can save nature—as in the Global

Warming Catastrophe of 11,000 BCE

• 3) Possibilities of scientific knowledge

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Minuses of Civilization

• Unification also takes place through wars, – War is systematic, not sporadic

• Social-economic, ethnic, gender inequalities• The state as instrument of power separated

from people• Technology as a means of enrichment (of the

few) overlooks destructive effects• Scientism (exaggerated view of the authority

of science and scientists)?

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Problems with Kinship Groups• First stage of history: kinship groups• Basic problems of this stage– Separation of groups– Sporadic wars

• Second stage: uniting of separate kinship groups– Growing populations – More frequent interaction, conflicts

• Two methods of unification – cooperation– force: hierarchical state

• Hence: a choice between two methods

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Why do people tolerate oppressive states?

• (1) Religious beliefs• (2) Military force• (3) Geographical conditions

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(1) Religious revolution

• Because of religion? Kings are god-like– Gilgamesh: 2/3 god– Pharaoh: 3/3 god (Why is Pharaoh more god-like?)

• Animism > Anthropomorphic Polytheism– Natural evolutionary process of consciousness? Is AP an

improvement over Animism? – > Old religion of participation in the Life-Force (animism)

had to be forcefully overthrown.

• > Creation of fear-based, slavish religion

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(2) Fight or flight?

• Military: Powerlessness of people to fight back.

• Gilgamesh has a specialized, standing army• But people can always run away, right?

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(3) Civilization Trap

• Where to run? Desert, Warrior herders in hills• Geography of Tigris/Euphrates, Nile river

valleys (S., p. 45)• Expelled from paradise, or trapped within it? >

“Civilization Trap”

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Kinds of Civilization Traps

• Flood-plains of Mesopotamia and Egypt• Loess soil (air-borne silt) in China• Well water in Mexico (Mayas)• Mountain rivers for Peru• Contrast with sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa: history of migrations to 19th c.

• Location of African kingdoms, 112• = Trading kingdoms• Wealth not based on peasant agriculture• Map 113: Spread of Bantu• Peasants can move away from tyrants! No

civilization trap (except for Egypt)• > Bantu migrations: kinship, communal

democracies until 19th c. King Shaka

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State formation?

• “Could the settlements of the Middle Niger at Jenne-jeno be an example of early urbanization without a strong centralized government? Without a state? It is possible.” (Spodek 114)

• = No state where there is freedom to move elsewhere.

• But possibility of trade-based urbanization.

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