Chapter 1
The Hazda of Tanzania are one of the last gathering and hunting societies onearth.
Likely to disappear soon
Will mark the end of what was universal human existence until 10,000–12,000 years ago
For 95 percent of human history, the means of life was gathering and hunting.
Food collection, not food production
Has been labeled “Paleolithic” (old stone age) era
It’s wrong to ignore the first 200,000 years of human experience.
Archaeology reveals a great deal about these peoples
They settled the planet
They created the earliest human societies
They were the first to reflect on issues of life and death
Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations
Homo sapiens emerged in eastern and southern Africa 250,000 years ago.
Stayed there exclusively for about 150,000 years
Africa was home to the “human revolution,” in which culture became more important than biology in shaping human behavior
Humans began to inhabit environments not touched by earlier hominids
Technological innovation: use of stone and bone tools
Hunting and fishing, not just scavenging
Settlements planned around movement of game and fish
Patterns of exchange
Use of ornaments, perhaps planned burials
Around 100,000 years ago: beginning of migrations out of Africa
Adapted to nearly every environment on earth
Much took place in the difficulties of the last Ice Age
Ice lowered sea levels, created land bridges Into Eurasia
Humans started migrating into the Middle East around 40,000 years ago
The best evidence of early European settlement comes from southern France and northern Spain
Settlers in northern Europe were pushed southward into warmer areas around 20,000 years ago
Developed new hunting habits, new hunting technologies
The earliest Europeans left hundreds of cave paintings: depictions of animals and humans and abstract designs (maybe early form of writing)
Scholars debate the meaning of cave images
Perhaps examples of “totemic” thinking—the belief that particular people are associated with or descended from particular animals
Perhaps “hunting magic” to enhance success
Perhaps part of religious practice or rites of passage
Perhaps showed division of male and female realms
Development of new technologies in Ukraine and Russia
Needles, multilayered clothing, weaving, nets, baskets, pottery,etc.
Partially underground dwellings made from mammoth remains
Suggests semipermanent settlement
Creation of female figurines (“Venus figurines”)
Have been found all across Europe
Into Australia
Humans reached Australia about 60,000 years ago from Indonesia
First known use of boats
Very sparse settlement; estimated 300,000 people in 1788
Development of some 250 languages
Still completely a gathering and hunting economy when Europeans arrived in 1785. complex worldview: the Dreamtime
Stories, ceremonies, and art tell of ancestral beings
Everything in the natural order is an echo of ancient happenings
Current people are intimately related to places and events in past
Major communication and exchange networks
Included stones, pigments, wood, pituri (psychoactive drug)
Also included songs, dances, stories, and rituals
Into the Americas
When settlement of the Americas began is still argued over (somewhere between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago)
Mode of migration (Bering Strait or by sea down west coast of North America) also still argued about
How many migrations and how long they took also argued over
Evidence of humans in southern Chile by 12,500 years ago
Clovis: the first clearly defined and widespread culture of the Americas
Name comes from the Clovis point, a kind of projectile point
Flourished 12,000–11,000 years ago
Hunted large mammals (mammoths, bison)
Disappeared about 10,900 years ago, at the same time as the extinction of a number of large mammals
Next stage: much greater cultural diversity, as people adapted to the end of the Ice Age in different ways
Into the Pacific
The last phase of the great human migration, started ca. 3,500 years ago
Migration by water from the Bismarck and Solomon islands and the Philippines
Very quick migration over very long distances
Migrants spoke Austronesian languages (can be traced to southern China)
Settled every habitable area of the Pacific basin within 2,500 years
Also settled the island of Madagascar
Made Austronesian the most widespread language family
Completed initial human settlement of the world ca. 900 c.e. with occupation of Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Pacific settlers
Took agriculture with them, unlike other migrations
Apparently followed a deliberate colonization plan
Created highly stratified societies or chiefdoms (e.g., Hawaii)
Massive environmental impact on previous uninhabited lands
Many animals became extinct
Deforestation of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in fifteenth to seventeenth centuries nearly destroyed society there
The Ways We Were
The First Human Societies
Societies were small, bands of 25–50 people
Relationships defined by kinship
Very low population density (because of available technology)
Very slow population growth
Perhaps 10,000 people in world 100,000 years ago
Grew to 500,000 by 30,000 years ago
Reached 6 million 10,000 years ago
Paleolithic bands were seasonally mobile or nomadic
Moved in regular patterns to exploit wild plants and animals
Since they moved around, they couldn’t accumulate goods
Societies were highly egalitarian
Perhaps the most free people in human existence
No formal chiefs, kings, bureaucrats, soldiers, priests
Did not have specialists, so most people had the same skills
Male and female tasks often differed sharply
Relationships between women and men were far more equal than in later societies
Women as gatherers provided the bulk of family food,perhaps 70 percent of diet
James Cook described the gathering and hunting peoples of Australia as tranquil and socially equal
But European settlers found physical competition among Australian males, wife beating
Paleolithic societies had clearly defined rules
Men hunted, women gathered
Clear rules about distribution of meat from a kill
Rules about incest and adultery
Economy and the Environment
Gathering and hunting peoples used to be regarded as “primitive” and impoverished
Modern studies point out that they worked fewer hours
Wanted or needed little
But life expectancy was low (35 years on average)
Alteration of natural environments
Deliberately set fires to encourage growth of certain plants
Extinction of many large animals shortly after humans arrived
Gradual extinction of other hominids, like the Neanderthals (Europe) and Flores man (Indonesia)
The Realm of the Spirit
It is difficult to decipher the spiritual world of Paleolithic peoples
Lack of written sources
Art is subject to interpretation
Contemporary gathering and hunting peoples may not reflect ancient experience
Paleolithic peoples had a rich ceremonial life
Led by part-time shamans (people especially skilled at dealing with the spirit world)
Frequent use of psychoactive drugs to contact spirits
Apparent variety of beliefs
Some societies were seemingly monotheistic
Others saw several levels of supernatural beings
Still others believed in an impersonal force running throughout the natural order
Could be accessed by shamans in a trance dance
Venus figurines make some scholars think that Paleolithic religion was strongly feminine, with a Great Goddess
Many peoples probably had a cyclical view of time
Settling Down: “The Great Transition”
Gradual change as populations grew, climates changed, and peoples interacted
Collection of wild grains started in northeastern Africa around 16,000 years ago
Last Ice Age ended 16,000–10,000 years ago
Followed by a “global warming” period
Richer and more diverse environment for human societies
Population rise
Beginnings of settlement
Settlement led to societal change
Larger and more complex societies
Storage and accumulation of goods led to inequality
Settling-down process occurred in many areas 12,000–4,000 years ago
Jomon culture in Japan
Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, North America, Middle East
Bows and arrows were invented independently in Europe, Africa, and Middle East
The process of settlement was a major turn in human history
Placed greater demand on the environment, led to agriculture
Comparing Paleolithic Societies
Both the San and the Chumash preserved their ancient way of life into modern times.
The San of Southern Africa
Northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert (present-day Angola, Namibia, Botswana)
50,000–80,000 San still live in the region
Part of the Khoisan language family, inhabited southern Africa at least 5,000 years
Gathering and hunting way of life, with stone tools
Remarkable rock art, going back 26,000 years
Tradition persisted into the nineteenth century
Perhaps reflected the religious experience of trance healers
Most of the Khoisan peoples were absorbed or displaced by Bantu-speaking peoples
The San (Ju/’hoansi) still practiced their ancient life with few borrowings when anthropologists started studying them in the 1950s and 1960s
Use some twenty-eight tools, including digging stick, leather garment for carrying things, knife, spear, bow and poisoned arrows, ropes, and nets
Men hunt, women do most of gathering
Adequate diet
Short workweek, with even labor division between men and women
Uncertain and anxious life, dependent on nature
San society characterized by mobility, sharing, and equality
Basic unit is band of 10–30 people, connected to other bands
Many people claimed membership in more than one band
Frequent movement to new territory
No formal leaders, priests, or craft specialists
Very complex social relations
High value given to modesty, cooperation, equality
e.g., “insulting the meat”: a hunter is expected to disparage his accomplishment
Complex system of unequal gift exchange
Relative equality between the sexes
Free sex play between teenagers
Most marriages are monogamous
Frequent divorce among young couples
Frequent conflict over distribution of meat; rivalries over women
Belief system:
Creator God, Gao Na, is capricious
Lesser god Gauwa is destructive but sometimes assists humans
Gauwasi (spirits of dead ancestors) are most serious threat to human welfare
Evil influences can be counteracted with n/um, a spiritual potency that can be activated in “curing dances”
State of warfare with the divine
The Chumash of Southern California
Show a later Paleolithic stage than the San, with permanent villages
Chumash lived near present-day Santa Barbara, California
Richer environment than the San
Perhaps 20,000 when the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century
Chumash created new society after 1150 c.e. in response to violence and food shortages
Central technological innovation: the planked canoe (tomol)
Ability to make and own tomol led to social inequality
Stimulated trade between the coast and islands made deep-sea fishing possible
Living conditions were more elaborate than the San
Round, permanent, substantial houses (for up to 70 people)
A market economy, despite being gathering and hunting peoples
Use of money (stringed beads)
Regulation of the money supply to prevent inflation
Specialized production
Payment for services of dancers, healers, and buriers
Some private ownership
Beginning of class distinctions (e.g., bearskin capes, burials)
Emergence of a permanent, hereditary political elite
Chiefs (some were women) led in war and rituals, regulated trade
Periodic feasts for the poor
Chumash largely solved the problems of violence in the regionV. Reflections: The Uses of the Paleolithic
The study of history is about those who tell it today, not just about the past.
Views of the past reflect our own smugness or disillusionment
Paleolithic era is sometimes regarded as a golden age
Admired by feminists, environmentalists, antimaterialists
Scholars have looked to the Paleolithic era in questioning explosive population and economic growth of recent past
Gathering and hunting peoples of today have looked to Paleolithic era in an effort to maintain or recover their identities
A basic question: “What have we lost in the mad rush to modernity?”
Nobody can be completely detached when studying the past.
But passionate involvement is a good thing
Chapter 2
In the past two centuries, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of farmers worldwide.
The United States is an extreme case: only around 5 percent of Americans, many of them over 65 years old, were still on farms in 2000
Great increase in the productivity of modern agriculture
The modern retreat from the farm is a reversal of humanity’s first turn to agriculture.
The Agricultural Revolution in World History
Agriculture is the second great human process after settlement of the globe.
Started about 12,000 years ago
Often called the Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution
Deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
Transformed human life across the planet
Agriculture is the basis for almost all human developments since.
Agriculture brought about a new relationship between humans and other living things.
Actively changing what they found in nature rather than just using it
Shaping the landscape
Selective breeding of animals
“Domestication” of nature created new mutual dependence.
Many domesticated plants and animals came to rely on humans
Humans lost gathering and hunting skills
Population increase: too many humans to live by gathering and hunting
“Intensification” of living: getting more food and resources from much less land.
More food led to more people
More people led to greater need for intensive exploitation
Comparing Agricultural Beginnings
The Agricultural Revolution happened independently in several world regions.
Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia
Several areas in sub-Saharan Africa
China
New Guinea
Mesoamerica
The Andes
Eastern North America
All happened at about the same time, 12,000–4000 years ago
Scholars have struggled with the question of why agriculture developed so late in human history
Common Patterns
Agricultural Revolution coincided with the end of the last Ice Age
Global warming cycle started around 16,000 years ago
Ice Age was over by about 11,000 years ago
End of Ice Age coincided with human migration across earth
Extinction of some large mammals: climate change and hunting
Warmer, wetter weather allowed more wild plants to flourish
Gathering and hunting peoples had already learned some ways to manage the natural world
“Broad Spectrum Diet”
Development of sickles, baskets, and other tools to make use of wild grain in the Middle East
Amazon: peoples had learned to cut back some plants to encourage growth of the ones they wanted
Australians had elaborate eel traps
Women were probably the agricultural innovators
Men perhaps led in domesticating animals
Gathering and hunting peoples started to establish more permanent villages
Especially in resource-rich areas
Population growth perhaps led to a “food crisis”
Motivation to increase the food supply
Agriculture developed in a number of regions, but with variation
Depended on the plants and animals that were available
Only a few hundred plant species have been domesticated
Five (wheat, corn, rice, barley, sorghum) supply over half the calories that sustain humans
Only 14 large mammal species were domesticated
Variations
The Fertile Crescent was the first to have a full Agricultural Revolution
Presence of large variety of plants and animals to be domesticated
Transition to agriculture triggered by a cold and dry spell between 11,000 and 9500 b.c.e.
Transition apparently only took about 500 years
Much larger settlements
Much more societal sophistication (mud bricks, monuments and shrines, more elaborate burials, more sophisticated tools)
At about the same time, domestication started in the eastern Sahara (present-day Sudan)
The region was much more hospitable 10,000–5,000 years ago
Domestication of cattle there about 1,000 years before Middle East and India
The donkey was domesticated nearer the Red Sea
In Africa, animals were domesticated first; elsewhere, plants were domesticated first
Emergence of several widely scattered farming practices
Sorghum in eastern Sahara region
Teff and enset in Ethiopian highlands
Yams, oil palm trees, okra, and the kola nut in West Africa
African agriculture was less productive than agriculture in the Fertile Crescent
Separate development of agriculture at several places in the Americas
Absence of animals available for domestication
Only one of the 14 domesticated large mammals existed in the Americas: the llama/alpaca
So Americans lacked protein, manure, and power of large animals
Americans continued to rely on hunting for meat
Only cereal grain available was maize or corn
Required thousands of years of selective adaptation to reach a size sufficient for productive agriculture
Nutritionally poorer than cereals of the Fertile Crescent
Result: replacement of gathering and hunting with agriculture took 3,500 years in Mesoamerica
Americas are oriented north/south, so agricultural practices had to adapt to distinct climate zones to spread
East/West axis of Eurasia helped the spread of innovation
Domesticated plants and animals took much longer to spread in the Americas
The Globalization of Agriculture
Agriculture spread in two ways:
Diffusion: gradual spread of techniques and perhaps plants and animals,but without much movement of human population
Colonization or migration of agricultural peoples
Conquest, absorption, or displacement of gatherers and hunters
Often both processes were involved
Triumph and Resistance
Language and culture spread with agriculture
Indo-European languages probably started in Turkey, are spoken today from Europe to India
Similar process with Chinese farming
Spread of Bantu language in southern Africa
Bantu speakers originated in southern Nigeria or Cameroon ca. 3000 b.c.e.
Moved south and east over several millennia, taking agriculture with them
Similar spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples to Philippines and Indonesian islands, then to Pacific islands
The globalization of agriculture took about 10,000 years
Did not spread beyond its core region in New Guinea
Did not spread in a number of other regions
Was resisted where the land was unsuitable for farming or where there was great natural abundance
Some peoples apparently just didn’t want agriculture
By the beginning of the Common Era, gathering and hunting peoples were a small minority of humankind
Expansion of agriculture destroyed gathering and hunting societies
Process was sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent
The Culture of Agriculture
Agriculture led to much greater populations
e.g., early settlement near Jericho had about 2,000 people
Changes in world population
10,000 years ago: around 6 million people
5,000 years ago: around 50 million people
Beginning of Common Era: around 250 million people
Farming did not necessarily improve life for ordinary people
Meant much more hard work
Health deteriorated in early agricultural societies
New diseases from interaction with animals
The first epidemics, thanks to larger communities
New vulnerability to famine, because of dependence on a small number of plants or animals
New constraints on human communities
All agricultural people settled in permanent villages
The case of BanPo in China (settled ca. 7,000 years ago)
Explosion of technological innovation
Pots
Textiles
Textile work, like horticultural farming, was especially suitable for women with children
Metallurgy
“Secondary Products Revolution” started ca. 4000 b.c.e.: a new set of technological changes
New uses for domesticated animals, including milking, riding, hitching them to plows and carts
Only available in the Eastern Hemisphere
Deliberate alteration of the natural ecosystem
Removal of ground cover, irrigation, grazing
Evidence of soil erosion and deforestation in the Middle East within 1,000 years after beginning of agriculture
Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
Pastoral Societies
Some regions relied much more heavily on animals, because farming was difficult or impossible there
Pastoral nomads emerged in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara desert, parts of eastern and southern Africa
Relied on different animals in different regions
Horses were domesticated by 4000 b.c.e.; encouraged the spread of pastoral peoples on Central Asian steppes
Domesticated camels allowed human life in the inner Asian, Arabian, and Saharan deserts
No pastoral societies emerged in the Americas
Agricultural Village Societies
Most characteristic form of early agricultural societies, like Banpoor Jericho
Maintenance of equality and freedom (no kings, chiefs, bureaucrats, aristocrats)
The case of Çatalhüyük, in southern Turkey
Population: several thousand
Dead buried under their houses
No streets; people moved around on rooftops
Many specialized crafts, but little sign of inherited social inequality
No indication of male or female dominance
Men hunted; women were involved in agriculture
Village-based agricultural societies were usually organized by kinship, group, or lineage
Performed the functions of government
The Tiv of central Nigeria organized nearly a million people this way in the late nineteenth century
Sometimes modest social/economic inequality developed
Elders could win privileges
Control of female reproductive powers
Chiefdoms
Chiefs, unlike kings, usually rely on generosity, ritual status, or charisma to govern, not force
Chiefdoms emerged in Mesopotamia sometime after 6000 b.c.e.
Anthropologists have studied recent chiefdoms in the Pacific islands
Chiefdoms such as Cahokia emerged in North America
Distinction between elite and commoner was first established
Based on birth, not age or achievement
Reflections: The Legacies of Agriculture
Agriculture is a recent development in world history.
Was an adaptation to the unique conditions of the latest interglacial period
Has radically transformed human life and life on the planet more generally
One species, Homo sapiens, was given growing power over other animals and plants.
Agriculture also gave som
Chapter 3
The contrast between “artificial” life as a “civilized” city dweller and the spacious freedom and imagined simplicity of earlier times still resonates today.
“Civilizations” are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history made possible by the surpluses produced by the Agricultural Revolution.
The distinctive features of civilizations are:
Cities with monumental architecture and populations in the tens of thousands
Powerful states that could compel obedience and wage large-scale warfare
Much greater inequality in economic function, wealth, and social status
Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
Civilization was a global phenomenon
Six major civilizations and some smaller manifestations
Scattered around world
Developed after 3500 b.c.e.
Introducing the First Civilizations
One of the earliest civilizations emerged in Sumer (in southern Mesopotamia) between 3500 and 3000 b.c.e.
First written language
Appearance of Egyptian civilization in Nile River Valley (northeast Africa) and smaller Nubian civilization to its south at about the same time
Norte Chico (central coastal Peru), emerged between 3000 and 1800 b.c.e.
Twenty-five urban centers
Norte Chico differed in several ways from Mesopotamia and Egypt:
Smaller cities without walls or signs of pervasive warfare
Less evidence of economic specialization
No grain-based agriculture
Did not develop certain technologies like pottery
Developed an accounting system based on the quipu (a series of knotted cords) but no writing system
Unusually self-contained; only import was maize, derived from Mesoamerica
Indus Valley civilization in Indus and Saraswati river valleys of present-day Pakistan arose between 3000 and 2000 b.c.e.
Elaborately planned cities and standardized weights, measures,architectural styles, and brick sizes
Written script that remains thus far undeciphered
Unlike other civilizations, it generated no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings, or warrior classes
Scholars remain uncertain as to how society was organized; theories include a series of small republics, rule by priests, or an early form of the caste system
Environmental degradation led to the collapse of this civilization by about 1700 b.c.e., but several aspects of its culture shaped later Indian societies
Around 2200 b.c.e., a First Civilization took shape in China
From the start, China was defined by the ideal of a centralized state
The Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties enlarged the Chinese state
Ruler was the “Son of Heaven,” an intermediary between heaven and earth
Early written language with oracle bones as early documents
China has maintained impressive cultural continuity into modern times
The Olmec produced a First Civilization much later (around 1200 b.c.e.) on coast of Gulf of Mexico, near present-day Veracruz
Cities arose from competing chiefdoms and produced elaborate ceremonial centers
Created the first written language in the Americas by about 900 b.c.e.
Culture influenced later civilizations in Mesoamerica, including the Maya and Teotihuacán
Other smaller civilizations also flourished
Nubian civilization south of Egypt was distinctive and independent
City of Sanxingdui in China arose separately from the more well-known Shang Dynasty
The Question of Origins
First Civilizations had their roots in the Agricultural Revolution
First Civilizations tended to develop from earlier, competing chiefdoms that already had some social rank and economic specialization
Process was gradual and evolutionary
Why did some chiefdoms develop into civilizations and others did not?
One argument: the need to organize large-scale irrigation projects (archeologists have found that these projects appeared long after civilizations began)
Another argument: the needs of elite groups, warfare, and trade all played roles as well
Robert Carneiro’s argument: population density created competition, especially when agricultural land was limited
Tensions sparked innovations such as irrigation and plows and also intense competition that led to repeated warfare
Winners absorbed losing populations into their societies as subordinated workers
The creation of the First Civilizations was quick by world history standards but was an unconscious undertaking for those involved
All First Civilizations relied on highly productive agriculture D. An Urban Revolution
Cities were one of the most distinctive features of First Civilizations
The scale, layout, and specialized industries of cities would have impressed visitors from villages
Cities lay at the heart of all First Civilizations because they were:
Political/administrative capitals
Centers of cultural production—art, architecture, literature, ritual, and ceremony
Places of local and long-distance exchange
Centers of manufacturing activity
Cities produced new societies with greater specialization and inequality
The Erosion of Equality
Professional and craft specialization marked early urban life.
Hierarchies of Class
First Civilizations had vast inequalities in wealth, status, and power
Civilizations multiplied and magnified inequalities that already existed in complex gathering and hunting societies and agricultural chiefdoms
These new levels of inequality represent one of the major turning points in the social history of humankind
Upper classes:
Enjoyed great wealth
Avoided physical labor
Had the finest in everything
Occupied the top positions in political, military, and religious life
And were frequently distinguished by their
Clothing
Houses
Manner of burial
Treatment under the law
Free commoners formed the vast majority of the population and included artisans of all kinds, lower-level officials, soldiers and police, servants, and farmers
Their surplus production was appropriated to support the upper classes
Some members of these classes recognized and resented their situation
Slaves were at the bottom of social hierarchies everywhere
Slavery and civilization seem to have emerged together
First-generation slaves were prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors
Worked in fields, mines, homes, and shops
More rarely, they were sacrificed
Slavery varied from place to place
Egypt and the Indus Valley civilizations initially had fewer slaves than the more militarized Mesopotamia
Later, the Greeks and Romans employed slaves far more extensively than did the Chinese or Indians
Most ancient slavery differed from the recent American variety
Slaves were not a primary agricultural labor force
Many children of slaves were freed
Slavery was not defined by race or skin color
Hierarchies of Gender
Civilizations everywhere undermined the earlier and more equal relationships between men and women
Women in horticultural societies remained relatively equal to men
But patriarchy gradually emerged in First Civilizations
More intensive agriculture with animal-drawn plows and large dairy herds favored male labor over female
Patriarchy also developed in civilizations without plow agriculture, such as Mesoamerica and the Andes
David Christian: the declining position of women was a product of growing social complexity
Men were less important in the household, so may have been more available to assume powerful and prestigious specialist roles
Men used this authority to shape the values and practices of their societies in ways that benefited them at the expense of women
The association of women with nature because of their role in reproduction may also have played a role
Civilizations highlight human mastery over nature
Women may have become associated with an inferior dimension of human life (nature)
Warfare may also have contributed to patriarchy
Large-scale military conflict was a feature of most First Civilizations
Military service was largely restricted to men
Private property and commerce also may have played a role
Need to restrict female sexual activities to assure inheritance by father’s offspring
Exchange of female slaves, concubines, and wives became part of male commerce
Patriarchy in Practice
Gerda Lerner: emergence of patriarchy in Mesopotamia
Written law codes codified patriarchal family life
Regulation of female sexuality was central
Women in Mesopotamia were sometimes divided into two sharply distinguished categories, depending on protection of one man
Powerful goddesses of Mesopotamia were gradually replaced by male deities
Egyptian patriarchy gave women greater opportunities than in most First Civilizations, including ability to:
Own property and slaves
Administer and sell land
Make their own wills
Sign their own marriage contracts
Initiate divorce
Royal women occasionally wielded political power as regents for their sons or, more rarely, as queens in their own right
Egyptian statues and love poetry suggest affection between sexes
The Rise of the State
States were central to the organization and stability of First Civilizations.
Coercion and Consent
The state fulfilled a variety of roles in coordinating and regulating the First Civilizations, including
Organizing irrigation systems
Adjudicating conflicts
Defense
The state served the needs of the upper classes by:
Protecting the privileges of the elites
Requiring farmers to give up a portion of their product to support city people
Demanding labor on large public projects
The state frequently used force to secure its will
Force was not always necessary because the state often claimed that its authority was normal, natural, and ordained by the gods
Rule by divine right
Deference to religion restrained or even undermined the right to rule as in the rule of Chinese emperors by the Mandate of Heaven
Writing and Accounting
Writing provided support for the state and emerged in all of the First Civilizations except the Andes (though some scholars now regard their knotted strings, or quipus, as a kind of writing)
Writing sustained the First Civilizations by:
Defining elite status and conveying prestige on those who wrote
Allowing some commoners to join the elite through literacy
Providing a means for propaganda
Providing a means to keep accurate accounts and complex calendars
Giving weight to regulations and laws
Writing also served functions beyond the state
Fostered literature, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and history
Sometimes threatened rulers
The Grandeur of Kings
Source of state authority
Monumental residences and temples
Luxurious dress
Elaborate burials
Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
Environment and Culture
Both depended on rivers, but were very different
Erratic and destructive flooding in Mesopotamia
Nile flooded more predictably and less destructively
Mesopotamia was less geographically isolated than Egypt
Mesopotamia was vulnerable to external attack
Egypt was usually protected from external attack
Many scholars see a relationship between physical setting and culture
More negative Mesopotamian worldview seems to reflect its precarious and violent environment
Egyptian worldview reflected the more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment in which it took shape
Environmental impact of rising population
In southern Mesopotamia, deforestation, soil erosion, and salinization of the soil weakened Sumerian city-states, leading to foreign conquest and the northward shift of Mesopotamia’s cultural centers
Egypt built a more sustainable agricultural system that contributed to the remarkable continuity of its civilization
Cities and States
The political systems of Mesopotamia and Egypt differed sharply
Mesopotamia for its first thousand years was organized into a dozen or more separate city-states
Each city-state was ruled by a king
80 percent of the population lived in city-states for protection
Environmental devastation and endemic warfare ultimately led to conquest by outside forces after about 2350 b.c.e.
These outside powers built large territorial states or bureaucratic empires encompassing all or most of Mesopotamia
Egypt
Around 3100 b.c.e., several earlier states or chiefdoms merged into a unified territory that stretched some 1,000 miles along the Nile
For 3,000 years, Egypt maintained its unity and independence with few interruptions
Unity was reinforced by ease of travel along Nile
Most Egyptians lived in agricultural villages, perhaps because of greater security
The pharaoh, a god in human form, was the focus of the Egyptian state
The pharaoh ensured the annual flooding of the Nile
The pharaoh defined the law of the land
Access to the afterlife was linked to proximity to the pharaoh
Pharaohs were most powerful before 2400 b.c.e.
Local officials gained in power over time
Pharaohs were discredited by Nile’s failure to flood around 2200 b.c.e.
From 2200 to 2000 b.c.e., anarchy; when state was restored, pharaohs never regained their old power
Interaction and Exchange
Egypt and Mesopotamia frequently interacted
Egypt’s agriculture benefited from interaction
Mesopotamian models may have influenced Egypt’s step pyramids and system of writing
Egypt’s “divine kingship” seems to have been derived from central or eastern Sudan
Both Mesopotamia and Egypt carried on extensive long-distance trade
Mesopotamian sea trade with the Indus Valley civilization as early as 2300 b.c.e.
Mesopotamian trade with Anatolia, Egypt, Iran, and Afghanistan
Egyptian trade in the Mediterranean and Middle East
Egyptian trade in Nubia and along the East African coast
Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultural influences moved along trade routes
Hebrews migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine and Egypt early in their history
Mesopotamian influence on Hebrew laws and flood story
Emerging conception of a merciful and single deity, Yahweh, who demanded an ethical life from his people, was unique
Phoenicians (in present-day Lebanon) were commercially active in the Mediterranean basin
Adopted the Mesopotamian fertility goddess
Adapted Mesopotamian writing into simpler alphabetic system
Some Indo-European peoples settled in north-central Anatolia
Adopted deities, bronze metallurgy, and the wheel from Mesopotamia
Spread them with further migrations
Sustained contact between Nubia and Egypt
Nubians built Egyptian-style pyramids
Nubians worshipped Egyptian gods and goddesses
Nubians used Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
But Nubia maintained its distinctiveness
Developed an alphabetic script
Retained many of its own gods
Developed a major ironworking industry by 500 b.c.e.
Asserted political independence whenever possible
In the Mediterranean basin:
Egyptian influence can be seen in Minoan art (emerged in Crete around 2500 b.c.e.)
Martin Bernal: the Greeks drew heavily upon both Egyptian and Mesopotamian precedents in art,religion, philosophy, and language
Mesopotamia and Egypt were also influenced by their neighbors
Indo-Europeans brought horse-and-chariot-based armies to Mesopotamia; Indo-European Hittites conquered the Babylonian empire in 1595 b.c.e.
The Hyksos invaded using chariot-based armies and ruled Egypt between 1650 and 1535 b.c.e.
Mesopotamians and Egyptians adopted chariot technology
Arrival of the Hyksos spurred further innovations in Egypt:
New armor and weaponry
New methods of spinning and weaving
New musical instruments
Olive and pomegranate trees
By 1500 b.c.e., Egypt had become an imperial state
Rule over non-Egyptian peoples in both Africa and Asia
Regular diplomatic correspondence with Middle Eastern empires
Reflections: “Civilization”: What’s in a Word?
Some scholars have reservations about the use of the word “civilizations” to describe the cultures studied in this chapter.
Implication of superiority: “civilization” in popular usage suggests refined behavior, a “higher” form of society, something unreservedly positive; using this word implies that other ways of living are “uncivilized,” which normally implies inferiority
Modern assessments of the First Civilizations reveal a profound ambiguity.
They gave us inspiring art, profound reflections on life, more productive technologies, increased control over nature, and writing
But they also produced massive inequalities, state oppression, slavery, large-scale warfare, the subordination of women, and epidemic disease
Some scholars prefer more neutral terms, such as complex societies, urban-based societies, or state-organized societies.
Scholars object to the term “civilization,” because it implies more clear-cut boundaries from other societies than was actually the case.
Aside from elites, most of the people living in the First Civilizations probably defined themselves more by occupation, clan, village, city, or region than as a member of some larger “civilization”
First Civilizations lacked clear borders
Unclear line between civilizations and other kinds of societies
This book continues to use the term because:
It is so deeply embedded in our way of thinking about the world
No alternative concept has achieved widespread usage
We need to make distinctions among different kinds of human communities
But in using this term, we must remember:
Historians use “civilization” as a purely descriptive term designating a particular type of human society—one with cities and states—without implying any judgment or assessment, any sense of superiority or inferiority
it is used to define broad cultural patterns in particular geographic regions while recognizing that many people living in those regions may have been more aware of differences and conflicts than of those commonalities
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