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QUIZ DISCUSSION
• In what specific way the development of agriculture influenced state formation?(video sourced)
Agriculture food productionSedentery life- settled down villagesLabor demand increaseObligations,power,status,wealthStocking of foodLandowners,feudal orderEgypt example
The Origin of the State
• When, where, and why did
early states originate, and
what were their key attributes?
• How do archaeologists distinguish
between chiefdoms and states?
• What similarities and differences marked
the origin of early states in
the Old and New Worlds?
The Origin of the State
• State: a form of social and
political organization that has
a formal, central government
and a division of society into classes
– First states had developed in
Mesopotamia by 5,500 BP and
3,000 years later in Mesoamerica
• Chiefdoms were precursors to states, with
priveleged and effective leaders, “chiefs”,
but lacking the sharp class divisions that
characterize states.
• One of the differences between chiefdoms
and states are ‘sharp class divisions.’
How and Why did chiefdoms and states originate?
• The complexity of division of social and economic labor tended to grow as food production spread and intensified.
• Systems of political authority and control developed to handle regulatory problems which emerges whenthe population grows and the economy develops.
• Competition (including warfare) for territory and resources stimulates state formation
Causes of the State Formation
• One obvious cause of state formation: the need to regulate hydraulic agricultural economies.
• In arid areas such as ancient Egypt andMesopotamia, states have emerged tomanage systems of irrigation, drainage andflood control.
• Growth in hydraulic systems is often but not always associated with state formation.
Causes of the State Formation
• Long-Distance Trade Routes
• States emerged at strategic locations in regional
trade networks. These sites include points of
supply or exchange situated to threaten or halt
trade between centers.
• Not a necessary or sufficient condition for the
rise of states
Causes of the State Formation
• Population, War, and Circumscription
– Carneiro: Wherever and whenever environmental circumscription (resource concentration), increasing population, and warfare exist, state formation will begin.
• Multivariate theory: involves multiple factors, courses, or variables
• Incorporating three factors working togetherinstead of a single cause of state formation
• Theory explains many, but not all, cases of state formation
Causes of the State Formation
• Coastal Peru illustrates factors’ interaction• Earliest cultivation limited to valleys with springs
(arid)
• Population increased, and new villages developed
• Land became scarce, and rivalries and raiding grew
• The first states developed when one chiefdom conquered others.
• Eventually, these became an empire (a mature state that is large, multiethnic, militaristic, and expansive)
Causes of the State Formation
• To explain any instance of state formation, we must search for specific changes in
– access to resources, and
– regulatory problems
that fostered stratification and state machinery.
Remember, chiefdoms and states don’tinevitably arise from food production.
There is no universal, lineal development line which is valid for every human society.
Attributes of States
1. States control specific regional territory. Theywere expansionist; competition amongchiefdoms led to extending rule over largerterritory and managing people and resourceson it.
2. Early states had productive farming economiesthat supported dense populations (often in cities) and involved some form of irrigation andwater control.
3. States used tribute and taxation to accumulate, at a central place, the resources needed to support hundreds, or even thousands, of specialists. Had rulers, military and controlover human labor.
Attributes of States
4. States were stratified into social classes (elites, officials, priests, artisans, commoners, slaves). Rulers stayed in power by combiningpersonal ability, religious authority, economiccontrol and force.
5. Early states had imposing public buildings and monumental architecture (temples, palaces).
6. Early states developed some form of record-keeping system, usually a written script.
State Formation in the Middle East
• Food production arose around
10,000 BP in the Middle East.
• Population increased most
rapidly in the alluvial plain in southern
Mesopotamia by 6,000 BP.
• Towns grew into cities by 5,500 BP.
– Sumer, with its capital at Uruk
– Elam, with its capital at Susa
Urban Life
• Jericho: the earliest known town
– Located in today’s Israel
at a well-watered oasis
– First settled by Natufian
foragers some 11,000 years ago
– Unplanned, densely populated settlement with
round houses and some 2,000 people
– Surrounded by a sturdy wall (probably built
against flood rather than for defense)
Urban Life
• Çatal Höyük arose because of trade– Located in central part of modern Turkey, possibly largest
settlement of Neolithic, upported up to 10,000 people
– No control or management of trade and production by
priestly or political elite. Never became a full-fledged city
with centralized organization. Food was stored and
processed not collectively but on a domestic scale.
– Shielded by a defensive wall
• Ritual spaces decorated by wall paintings, sculpted ox
heads, bull horns, and relief models of bulls and rams
• Ritual images placed along north, east and west walls
but never south (it was reserved for cooking and
domestic tasks)
• Identifying early states (archaelogical
evidence for state organization)
– Monumental architecture
– Central storehouses
– Irrigation systems
– Written records
Social Ranking and Chiefdoms
• On the basis of the kinds of status
distinctions within society, Morton Fried
divided societies into 3 types:
– Egalitarian
– Ranked
– Stratified.
Social Ranking and Chiefdoms
• Egalitarian societies: Most typically amongforagers. Lack status distinctions except forthose based on gender, age, individualqualities, talents, and achievements ( adultmen, elder women, talented musicians, ritualspecialists)
• cultures with rudimentary status distinctions, which were not usually inherited (child of a respected person will not receive recognitionbecause of parent, but must earn suchrespect)
Social Ranking and Chiefdoms
• Ranked societies: Hereditary inequality, individuals ranked by genealogical distance from the chief– Lack stratification (social divisions or strata with
unequal wealth and power) into noble and commonerclasses.
– Continuum of status, with many individuals and kin groups ranked about equally, meaning a competitonfor positions of leadership.
– Chiefdoms: relations among villages and individuals are unequal (not all ranked societies are chiefdoms)
• Stratified Societies: sharp social divisions.
Social Ranking and Chiefdoms
• In Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and Peru,
chiefdoms were precursors to primary
states (states that arose on their own, not
through contact with other state societies).
• Primary states emerged from a competiton
among chiefdoms, as one chiefdom
managed to conquer its neighbors and
make them part of a larger political unit.
Advanced Chiefdoms
• Excavations at Tell Hamoukar suggest
advanced chiefdoms arose in northern
areas of the Middle East independently of
events in southern Mesopotamia
– Evidence of large-scale
food storage and preparation
• A ranked society in which elites
were organizing people and resources
The Rise of the State
• Uruk Period (6,000–5,200 BP)– Irrigation allowed the Ubaid communities
to spread along the Euphrates River
– Travel and trade were expanding
– Economies managed by central leadership
– First writing appears, to keep accounts• Cuneiform: wedge-shaped
writing, using styles on clay
• established Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization.– Writing and temples played key roles
The Rise of the State
• Uruk Period (6,700–5,200 BP)
– Metallurgy: the extraction and
processing of metals to make tools
– After 5,000 BP, metallurgy evolved rapidly
• Smelting: a high-temperature process by which
pure metal is produced from an ore
• Golden objects found in royal
burials at Uruk by 4,500 BP
The Rise of the State
• The Mesopotamian economy spurred
population growth and urbanism.
– Secular authority replaced
temple rule by 4,600 BP
– Well-defined class structure,
with complex stratification
into nobles, commoners, and slaves
– URUK- largest early Mesopotamian city
Other Early States
• Indus Civilization
– An Indus River Valley state flourished
between 4,600 and 3,900 BP.
– The major cities Harappa and Mohenjo
Daro, exhibited urban planning with carefully
laid out wastewater
systems and residential sectors.
– The area developed its own writing system.
– The culture collapsed around 3,900 BP.
Other Early States
• China: Shang Dynasty (3,750 BP)
– Arose in Huang He River Area
• Urbanism
• Palaces
• Human sacrifice
• Distinct social classes
• Developed writing system
• Well-known for bronze metallurgy
Other Early States
• Egypt developed in northern Africa as one of the world’s first states.
– Egypt’s influence extended southward along the Nile into what is now Sudan.
– Metallurgy played a role in the eventual rise of the African states.
• Metallurgy was spread by Bantu speakers about 2,100 BP.
Other Early States
• Mwenemutapa empire
– Started in the region now called
Zimbabwe, from Bantu migration
– The region was rich in gold.
– Developed a powerful kingdom based on
trade
– Mwenemutapa traded with the
city of Sofala on the Indian
Ocean starting around 1,000 BP.
State Formation in Mesoamerica
• Mesoamerican chiefdoms constructed
monumental buildings in many areas.
• Chiefdoms influenced one another as they
traded materials.
Early Chiefdoms and Elites
• Rapid social change between
3,200 BP and 3,000 BP
– Mesoamerica’s chiefdoms linked by trade
– Intensity of competitive interaction made change rapid
– State formation involves one chiefdom’s incorporating several others into an emerging state that it controls, and making changes in its own infrastructure as it acquires new territories.
Warfare and State Formation:
The Zapotec Case
• Warfare often plays a key role
in primary state formation.
– Zapotec state: first Mesoamerican state, in
the Valley of Oaxaca
• Changing warfare patterns were seen in Oaxaca
between 330 and 20 BP.
• Evidence for earliest conquest warfare appears
with evidence for emerging state organization.
• Expansion through conquest can play a key role in
the formation of a primary state.
• Henry Wright described the state as a society with not only a centralized but also an internally specialized, administrative organization- a bureaucracy.
• Chiefdoms, by contrast, lack administrative specialization.
• States have at least 4 levels of decision making.
• Chiefdoms have no more than 3 levels.
Why States Collapse
• Various factors could threaten economies
and political institutions:
– Invasion
– Disease
– Famine
– Prolonged drought
– Environmental degradation (deforestation,
over-use of land, irrigation)
Why States Collapse
• The Maya Decline
– Flourished between AD 300 and 900
• Known for monuments, calendars, mathematics, and
hieroglyphic writing
• Environmental factors (degradation): erosion and soil
exhaustion due to overpopulation and overfarming
• Food stress and malnutrition
• From period just before collapse, evidence
of their increased concern with fortifications (warfare)
• Social, political and military upheaval and competition
(texts).