Domestication and Agriculture: The Neolithic Revolution

1. Domestication and Agriculture:The Neolithic Revolution • Cultural materialism: Marvin Harris = “the primacy of the infrastructure,” i.e., changes in socio-politics (structure) and worldview (superstructure) result from changes in techno-economies (infrastructure) • But, evidence of significant change in ritual, social inequality, and ideology also are quite early and must be understood as more than the outcome of population growth resulting from food production, such as feasting • Nonetheless, food production did provide the basis for most political economies with substantial populations, or civilization

2. “At all times for euer hereafter to discouer, search, find out and view such remote heathen and barbarous lands, countries and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as to him, his heires and assignes” (Elizabeth I, 1584, to Walter Ralegh). Peoples in Americas, Africa, and many other regions viewed as barbarians, or even sub-human (Papal bull of 1536 declares Native Americans human) Manifest Destiny & the ideology of colonialism

3. The State of Nature “where everyman is Enemy to everyman. … there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain … no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worse of all, continual feare, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short” “the savage people in many places of America, except the government of small families … have no government at all, and live at this day in that brutish manner, as I said before” • Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651

4. “In the beginning all the World was America” John Locke, 1690

5. “Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762) “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said ‘This is mine,’ and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.” Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1754)

6. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) posited that all structures in the universe (including human society) develop from a simple, undifferentiated, homogeneity to a complex, differentiated, heterogeneity, accompanied by a process of greater integration of the differentiated parts. • Societal change was progressive (like neo-Malthusians) • Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): mechanical (kinship) and organic solidarity (social heterogeneity and integration) (Division of Labor in Society, 1892).

7. Social Complexity, the State, and Urbanism Civilization: primitive and civilized Lewis Henry Morgan: Savagery, Barbarism (Agriculture) & Civilization (Writing) Morgan saw property as the root of civilization

8. Karl Marx (1818-1883): primitive communism (no surplus), Asiatic mode of production, ancient mode of production (Graeco-Roman), feudal mode of production, early capitalism, late capitalism, communism (hypothetical demise of nation-state and class system) • Friedrich Engels (1820-1895): Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) • Modes and relations of production:Capital, Alienation, and Class (conflict)

9. The “Urban Revolution” • V. Gordon Childe was among the first to discuss the development of ancient civilizations (Near/Middle East) • defined states – “urban revolution” - based on the presence of certain key elements, most notably: cities, writing, surplus, metallurgy, craft specialization • technological innovations (e.g., metallurgy, writing), craft specialization, and agricultural surplus were key in the emergence of ancient states • Surplus, in particular, allowed certain individuals to be freed from agricultural labor, creating social inequality (capital, alienation, and class) • as with “Neolithic Revolution,” states were seen as an advancement over earlier cultural forms and given the right conditions a natural development for humankind

10. The Urban Revolution • Childe introduced the Urban Revolution in 1936 (“Man Makes Himself”); article in “Town Planning Review” (1950) described 10 traits that defined it: • Large population and large settlements (cities) • Full-time specialization and advanced division of labor • Production of an agricultural surplus to fund government and a differentiated society • Monumental public architecture • A ruling class • Writing • Exact and predictive sciences (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, calendars) • Sophisticated art styles • Long-distance trade • The state (bureaucracy).

11. What is a City? Definitions Vary, and some quite small. • “In Germany as a whole in the late middle ages [1300-1500], 3,000 places were reckoned to have been granted the status of cities; their average population was no more than 400 individuals” (Braudel 1985:482) • Among largest, Dresden about 2500

12. Chase & D. Chase (2009) • http://www.caracol.org/reports/2009.php

16. What is Writing?

18. Khipu (quipu)

20. Karl Wittfogel’s (1957) Hydraulic Hypothesis (Oriental Despotism)

21. Warfare • “Violence has been a feature of human society since the Paleolithic, but as communities grew in size the scale of conflict increased” • Internecine and external aggression

22. Robert Carneiro’s (1970) Circumscription Theory

23. The Trade Imperative & Secondary States

24. Personification of History & Ideology • Portraits and cultural heroes • Divine Kings, tombs, palaces, and prophets • Anthropomorphic (Monotheistic) Religion

25. Crusades: AD 1095-1291 Gautama Buddha: 563 BC (Nepal) to 483 BC (India) Jesus Christ: 7–2 BC (Bethlehem) to AD 26–36 (Golgatha) Mohammad: AD 570 (Mecca) to 632 (Medina)

26. Multi-causality and Variation • No prime movers (no silver bullets) • Multi-linear cultural development • Cycling (Integration and Disintegration) • Population growth, agricultural intensification, environment, change in socio-political organization (inequality), ideology, trade and warfare, material culture, urbanism

27. The Rise of Social Inequality and Complexity • “Rank Revolution” • What led to the emergence of social stratification (rise of social classes) and complexity (regional integration and institutional differentiation within communities) • How were personal and social autonomy and egalitarian social structures transformed into societies in which people were subordinate to others based on birth and social position, at both community and regional levels

28. Forms of Social Organization • Pre-State small-scale and kin-based “simple” societies: bands and tribes: small-sized (10s to 100s autonomous social groupings, egalitarian, division of labor and status based on age, sex, and personal characteristics or achievements); • Chiefdoms: medium-sized social formations (1000s to 10,000s), ranked kin-groups based on hereditary status (incipient classes), regionally-organized, integrated (non-autonomous) communities • State (territory and class-based societies); Large societies divided into stratified social classes, with centralized government, a ruling elite class, able to levy taxes (tribute), amass a standing army, and enforce law.

29. Chiefdoms • simple “two-tiered” hierarchy: people are either elite or commoner, in part related to hereditary (incipient classes); • generally based on semi-intensive economies; • various communities integrated into regional society, typically showing a “bi-modal” or rank-ordered settlement pattern: one or a few large (first-order) settlements, with smaller (second-and third-order) satellite settlements linked to these; • formal, even full-time specialists: religious specialists, warriors, chiefs, artisans;

30. Indus Mesoamerica Andes Areas covered in this segment (for test 2)