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6. Different Styles of Civilization

6. Different Styles of Civilization. Mesopotamia and Egypt. Outline. 1) Possible causes of the hierarchical state 2) L or U (continued) 3) Causes of the first states: geography of the Civilization Trap 4) Mesopotamia and Egypt Similarities Differences. State as System of Inequality.

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6. Different Styles of Civilization

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  1. 6. Different Styles of Civilization Mesopotamia and Egypt

  2. Outline • 1) Possible causes of the hierarchical state • 2) L or U (continued) • 3) Causes of the first states: geography of the Civilization Trap • 4) Mesopotamia and Egypt • Similarities • Differences

  3. State as System of Inequality • State as class-divided hierarchy (not just a “government”) • Power in hands of a few • Standing army under rule of elite • Women subordinate to men • Slavery

  4. 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?

  5. Rise of the hierarchical state • 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)

  6. 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?

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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)?

  10. 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

  11. Why do people tolerate oppressive states? • (1) Religious beliefs • (2) Military force • (3) Geographical conditions

  12. (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

  13. (2) Fight or flight? • Military: Powerlessness of people to fight back. • Gilgamesh has a specialized, standing army • But people can always run away, right?

  14. (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”

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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.

  18. Mesopotamia and Egypt: Similarities • Hierarchical state systems • Flood-plains, irrigation systems • Original, not successor states • Geography: civilization traps

  19. Mesopotamia and Egypt:Differences • Timeline: unity v. disunity • Social-political life • Re warfare • Re law • Re gender • Religion • Nature of gods, divinity of ruler, immortality

  20. Egypt: Unity and Disunity • 3100 BCE: unification (Narmer-Menes) • 2200: collapse of Old Kingdom • 2050: restore unified state • 1750: collapse of Middle Kingdom • 1550: New Kingdom • 1050: collapse of New Kingdom • Years of unity, peace: 1700 • Years of disunity, war: 350

  21. Mesopotamian Wars • 2600 Gilgamesh (fights with “Enkidu”) • 2350 Sargon: Akkadian conqueror • Creates standing army • Creates unified administration replacing local rule • Empire lasts 100 years • 1792-50 Hammurabi creates Babylonian empire • 1600 Hittites invade, destroy dynasty • 1500-500: constant wars until unification under Persians (Spodek, 58)

  22. War v. Peace • “Politically, each of the major cities of Sumer was also a state, ruling over the contiguous agricultural areas and often in conflict with neighboring city-states. The artwork [involved] an exaltation of war.” Spodek 60 • “Unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt has almost no existing record of independent city-states.” 71

  23. Law v. Tradition • Code of Hammurabi • Problem of how to unify people with different kinship traditions • King imposes rules • Based on class, social status, gender • Not on local traditions • Egypt • No need to impose new legal system of unity • Administration by Nomarchs adequate for tax purposes

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