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Contents
To the professor: Overhead Meet
the Professor
To your classmates
warm up exercise: student
ID form
To the book
To this class
Syllabus
To the web site:
http://www.roebuckclasses.com/101
To the educational process:
Self: On independent thought: Overhead
Learning Process
Others: Respect for Others
To the discipline of history: Overhead What is
History
Is history a science?
What is the place of theory in history? Overhead Darwin
on need for theory
Theory allows us to organize
the data from a perspective
Is history a narrative?
To Western Civilization: Getting Oriented - West of What?
The Myth of the
Continents
Aristotle
Civilized vs. Uncivilized
What is Civilization
Origins
Origin Myths
Who are we? Where did we come from? Our Origin Myths answer
these questions.
Not all societies have the same origin myths.
Different societies have different values.
Study Other's origin myths to find out what they valued and how they viewed
the world
Beware of Presentism - judging the past from the
perspective of the present. You won't understand history if you don't
appreciate the differences of other times and other places.
Comments on the
Scientific Method
Origins of humanity:
When, in the record of the past, would we expect to see
upright posture and bipedal locomotion? When did our ancestors first start
using language? When did they start using Tools? Fire? Shelter? Clothing?
Baskets? Boats? Wheel? Jewelry? Music? Religion? Art? Cities?
Agriculture? Domestication of dog.
Hint: Upright posture was around 6 Million years ago.
Modern humans,
like you and me, emerged approximately 100,000 years ago.
Hominid Evolution
Timeline
Becoming Human
- Prologue
- Evidence
- Anatomy
- Lineages
- Culture
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What is hunting and gathering ?
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How have our views of hunter gatherers
changed over time?
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What vestigial groups of HGs, alive today,
give us insights into the lifestyle of human beings for the last 100,000
years?
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What are the differences between hunting
and gathering, pastoralism and agriculture as modes of
life?
Origins of Agriculture
Domestication of
plants and animals made significant
changes in diet and fostered
population growth
Why did it occur? Why did people go from HG with abundant
leisure and good diets to farming with little leisure and poorer nutrition and
more frequent starvation? What do you think?
Most people believe that foragers turned to agriculture out
of cruel necessity.
But all areas of first domestication were ecologically rich.
Did climate change precipitate the neolithic revolution?
Affluence, not destitution - Iraqi Wetlands
The case of Çatal Höyük
Of course the Sumerians have their own account of How
Grain Came to Sumer
History of Western Civilization
Origins of Civilization in the
Ancient Near East: Dawn of history
Civilizations are societies in
which one finds large numbers of people living in cities, which are socially
stratified and are governed by centrally organized political systems called
states. Civilizations were first found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and
China between 6000 and 4500 years ago.
Questions:
When and where did the world’s first cities first
develop?
What changes in culture accompanied the rise of cities?
Why did civilizations develop in the first place?
Foundations for
the Development of Civilizations
Changes accompanying the rise of
civilization
1. Switching
from horticulture to intensive agriculture => surplus
production
- fertilizing fields
- adding irrigation facilities
- using draft animals (horses, oxen)
- planting multiple crops in a year
- conserving land through practices such as terracing
Neolithic villages, based on horticulture, while larger than the camps of
hunter-gatherers, were still comparatively small. While some may have
reached several thousand people in size, most were closer to a few hundred
people, mainly members of a few extended families or larger kin groups.
These people lived lives, working their fields, tending animals, and trading
with neighbors near and far. Within the village, there were few positions
of authority. These were generally occupied by village elders based on a
system of common assent. These elders could rule by the force of their
authority, but could be replaced when that authority was no longer
respected. The division of labor, so far as we know, was along age and
gender lines. Some craftsmen and specialists might also be present, but
the number of non-food-producing adults that could be supported through
horticulture was small.
One consequence of farming is that populations grow rapidly. The
need for more food, and for reliability, increases with population size.
To meet the needs of a growing population, one strategy is to switch from
horticulture to intensive agriculture
Intensification dramatically increases the reliability and productivity of
fields and, though it requires more labor than horticulture, can also support a
larger number of adults engaged in non-food-producing activities.
The shift to intensive farming, accompanied by a wide variety of social
changes, that forms the foundation for the development of cities and
civilizations.
2. Division of Labor: most
people not involved in farming
Monumental
architecture
Writing
The civilizations that grew up were based on intensified agriculture shared a
number of traits in common. The first of these is the diversification
of labor. In Neolithic villages, most people were involved in farming.
But in civilizations, most people were not involved in farming. Instead,
there were many skilled workers or craftspeople. For instance, in early
Mesopotamia, there were artisans, craftspeople, coppersmiths, silversmiths,
sculptors, merchants, potters, tanners, engravers, butchers, carpenters,
spinners, barbers, cabinetmakers, bakers, clerks and brewers. These
people were paid for their products in agricultural goods, and sometimes
in other items that could be traded for food. By diversification of labor,
then, we mean that individuals specialized in their professions and could make a
living in a variety of ways other than agriculture.
Part of the diversification of labor is the rise of extensive trade
systems. These trade systems, often run by specialized traders or
merchants, functioned to move functional and decorative goods between cities,
and to move necessary raw materials for these goods to craftsmen in
cities. Thus, the city Çatal Höyük, just like Teotihuacán in central
Mexico was located adjacent to an obsidian source. Its craftsmen would
fashion blades and blade cores from this obsidian for exchange within the city
as well as for trade abroad. Trade was the means through which luxury
goods and luxury raw materials moved great distances. Trade systems move
more than goods: ideas flow along these routes as well, and we see the rapid
spread of religious ideology, calendrical systems and other innovations from
their centers of origin to other cities and civilizations.
3. Central
Government
- regulates foreign trade
- controls exchange within the city
- control activities of specialists
- levy taxes and appoint tax collectors
- resolve disputes - laws
- state monopoly on violence/force
- maintain a standing army
- construct public works – such as irrigation
ditches, temples, defensive works
With the large numbers of people whose activities needed to be coordinated,
and among whom disputes needed to be resolved, and for whom public works needed
to be undertaken, it is not surprising that with the rise of cities comes the
beginnings of central government. By central government, we mean
the concentration of political power into the hands of a few, high-status
individuals who are supported in their governing by military and clerical
staffs. The role of the central government was to regulate foreign trade,
exchange within the city and the activities of different groups of specialists,
to resolve disputes, to construct defensive works, and to fund a standing
army. To accomplish these functions, the central government needs to levee
taxes and appoint tax collectors. A police system is needed to ensure
compliance with the taxation procedures, and to maintain civil order.
Finally, the central government functions to ensure that public works – such
as irrigation ditches – are built and maintained, and that the individuals who
are the intended recipients of these works benefit from them.
Just as in modern cities, ancient cities show clear evidence of central
governments. These include the pre-planned layout of cities and the
construction of monumental architecture such as government buildings, temples
and storehouses. For instance, the city was laid out on a grid, oriented
along a major north-south road. This major road was surrounded by
monumental religious architecture (Ziggurats) as well as a royal palace and a
market place. Surrounding this central urban core was a series of
neighborhoods inhabited by individuals related by kinship, craft-specialty, and
ethnicity. Outside of the city limits were found agricultural villages
with economic and political ties to the central government and urban
core.
Another good indicator of a central government is the existence of
writing. Writing served to record tax levees, service in the army, trade,
the recipes for certain goods (e.g., beer making in Mesopotamia). Writing
was also used to record and promote the actions of leaders (e.g., the stelae),
to record religious activities, observances, and unusual events, and to create a
unified code of law. In most cases, the first or only form of central
government was some form of king or queen assisted by a group of advisors.
A good example of the functioning of the central government in a civilization
is the Inca. The Inca empire was in the high Andes Mountains, mainly in
Peru, and reached its peak around AD 1500. In the mid-1400s, the Inca
kingdom was centered on the area immediately around the city of Cuzco in
Peru. By the late 1400s, the empire had expanded to include an area 2500
miles north-south, 500 miles east-west. It accomplished this vast
expansion through military conquest. Its population numbered in the millions and
incorporated a wide variety of conquered and subjugated ethnic groups from up
and down the Andean region. The government was headed by the emperor, a
semi-divine being whose authority was thought to derive, by birthright, from the
Sun God. Below him was the royal family, then the other noble families,
the imperial administrators, the lower nobility, the masses of artisans and
craftspeople and finally, the farmers. To administer this vast empire and
to ensure the maintenance of order, the collection of taxes, and the loyalty of
subjects, the empire was divided into four administrative districts that were
further subdivided into provinces and villages. A corresponding government
hierarchy existed at every administrative level in order to ensure the planting,
irrigation and harvesting of crops vital to the system of taxation.
4. Social Stratification (social
classes - not kin groups)
a. The
Emergence of Elites Mesopotamian example
kleptocracy - taking of wealth by elite.
b. Social
Pyramid
Elite marked by differences in
- wealth, power and authority
- overall health
- dwelling size and complexity
- appearance in written records and depictions in murals and carvings
The final characteristic of civilizations is social stratification. Social
Stratification refers to the emergence of social classes that differ
with respect to wealth, power and authority. The people at or near the
center of the government (the king or queen, the royal family, the noble
families) had higher status and wealth than those further down the scale, with
the lowest ranks reserved for peasant farmers and slaves. Just as in
modern societies, social stratification can be seen in ancient societies by
through differences in wealth. This may include burial wealth (the
quantity and quality of goods buried with the dead), overall health (nutrition
and disease), differences in dwelling size and complexity, written records and
depictions in murals and carvings.
Theories of Origin of Civilization
Key Ideas:
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Hydraulic Theory
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Theory of Competition and War
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Trade Network Theory
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Religion Theory
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Why did civilizations develop in the first place?
The amazing thing about civilizations is that they are ultimately so
similar everywhere they occur. Very similar behaviors are used to solve
similar problems in governance, trade, and other social problems. So the
question is, how is it that humans at a certain point in history, become
builders of monuments, dwellers in cities, and participants in large scale,
complex societies? Although we don’t have the answer yet, four
theories have been proposed. Each theory sees the appearance of a
centralized government as the hallmark of civilization, so they tackle the
question of what brought about such centralized governments and the associated
division of labor and social stratification?
The Hydraulic Theory sees the development of irrigation works
and the need to control and allocate water as the impetus for the development
of central governments. Under this theory, Neolithic villages recognized
that irrigation would increase the productivity of their lands. At the
same time, a system of reservoirs and check dams would control floods and
ensure water for fields even during the dry season. So individual
villages built such systems. The success of these irrigation works led
to the construction of larger and larger systems that ultimately were too
large and complex for untrained individuals to manage. Thus was born a
class of irrigation works managers, people whose sole responsibility was to
build, maintain, and administer the water in irrigation systems. To
resolve disputes, a legal system would develop; to enforce the decisions of a
water manager, a police force would develop; to protect the system from
outsiders required an army; to maintain it required taxes and laborers.
Thus individuals initially entrusted with management of irrigation works were
transformed into the heads of a centralized government with individuals of
many social ranks. The problem with the hydraulic theory is that we see
both areas with complex irrigation works that never developed central
governments and many central governments that emerged where irrigation works
were never developed.
The Trade Network Theory states that central governments
arise through the control of trade. Many areas are rich in some
resources but deficient in others. In order to compensate for this,
people trade raw materials. For instance, in central Mexico, obsidian is
scarce and control of access to and trade in the obsidian source near
Teotihuacan contributed enormously to its economic growth. In addition,
while maize was grown everywhere in this region, chilies were only grown in
the highlands, cotton and beans at intermediate elevations, animals for food
could be found at low elevations, and salt only far away along the coast.
The Trade Network Theory states that in order to ensure the flow of these and
other commodities required some form of central government. Once
obtained, these goods had to be distributed to the people, another function of
government. Thus, central governments arise to organize trade, procure
resources, and distribute them among a citizenry that otherwise would have a
hard time getting all the things they need to survive. Again, like the
hydraulic theory, there are many cases where this theory does not account for
the development of central government, or of extensive regional trade networks
where civilizations never developed. For instance, despite 6000 years of
trade, civilizations comparable to those of Mexico or Peru never developed
among the native peoples of northeastern North America. However, at
these sites in Ohio we see copper from Lake Superior, chert from Labrador,
marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico, shell from Long Island sound and
obsidian from Yellowstone.
The Theory of Environmental and Social Conscription is a
specific attempt to explain the emergence of central governments on coastal
Peru. This is a landscape of narrow, fertile river valleys separated by
expanses of desert. The Theory of Environmental and Social Conscription
states that competition among villages for land that could be farmed was the
impetus for the formation of central governments. As Neolithic villages
grew in this region, they ran out of land due to the presence of deserts and
of other growing Neolithic villages. This led to competition for land
through warfare. Warfare promotes social cohesion; the formation of
hierarchies consisting of solders, their leaders and a supreme commander (or
commanders); and methods of taxation, conscription and distribution of the
spoils of war. The process of conquest creates an instant lowest class
of conquered and enslaved people who do not own any land at all.
Because of the scarcity of land in coastal Peru, once established, these
provisional military governments would have become relatively permanent
because of the constant threat of warfare from adjacent villages and valleys.
The Religion Theory states that people come together for
religious or ideological reasons and, as a result of increased local
populations intensive agriculture and central government develop to meet the
emerging needs. in some cases, people will voluntarily relocate to areas where
religious leaders are well established. Thus, the city of Tikal may have
been an important religious center, which caused people to want to live there.
As a consequence, populations rose dramatically, straining the food supply.
Intensive agriculture was invented to assuage this need. Craft
specialization developed in the context of producing ritual items, but later
expanded to serve other elite members of society. These elites initially
controlled the calendar which regulated the agricultural cycle, but later
expanded into a more civil authority. The rise of the craft specialist
also promoted trade in raw materials with distant lands and served to pull
more artisans into Tikal. Thus, in the case of Tikal, the original
impetus for people coming together on the landscape was religious, but this
set in motion a number of problems. In solving these problems at the
scale of a city of 50,000 people, a central government emerged.
The variety of theories that account for the emergence of central
government, and the differing degrees to which these theories succeed in
explaining specific cases, suggest that different causes operated in different
places. Perhaps no one theory of the origins of civilization can account
for all the cases, a finding very different from the origins of agriculture
where researchers have been rapidly coalescing around a single theory.
Consequences
of the Rise of Civilization
The fundamental problems encountered by the
early agriculturalists –
dependency on the
weather
degradation of the environment
over-population
epidemic disease
social inequality
poverty
war
– have never been solved.
Sumerian, Egyptian, Harappan and Shang civilizations were
river valley civilizations.
Minoan, Mycenaean, and Hittite were not.
Spheres of Influence
You can see Sumeria traded west
into Turkey and all the way east to India. Old kingdom Egypt's influence
extended up into Anatolia (Turkey) and to the upper Euphrates. Harappan
civilization extended west along the coast to Sumeria.
Not only goods, but ideas were
traded. e.g. the first pyramids in Egypt were step pyramids based on
Mesopotamian building styles. The Egyptians used brick and laid it in the same
manner as the Mesopotamians. It is a clear borrowing.
On writing King Shulgi (c. 2100
BC) on the future of Sumerian literature.
when did writing start? who started it? what was the written language
like?
what did they write on? does it matter what people write on?
Your book mentions that cuneiform started around 8000 BC. All other sources
say it was the 4th millennium.
Why the discrepancy? tokens
Symbol writing
Religious ideas flowed too.
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Not concerned with ancient
religions, but with ancient religion (sing.), to look at the religious
phenomena that united ancient society, rather than the details that set
societies apart.
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Must understand difference
between reformed and un-reformed religion.
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Reconstruction ancient
religious thought. The kinds of questions asked reveal basic
assumptions.
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It makes a difference to
ask: Who made the stars? or: How were the stars made?
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Polytheistic religions
evoked ‘meaning’ on a collective and individual basis, through
myth and ritual
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Story myth:
traditional, popular, oral (as distinct from conscious literary
creation).
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Ritual myth: the
libretto (or text) of religious liturgy.
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Basic questions: Was
there a world beyond the world one could see and touch? All kinds of
invisible forces. If so, how did they relate to the visible world?
And what were the implications for human institutions and for human
behavior? Gods were not only stronger, but could take any form, be
invisible, cause events. Note: every event is unique; there is not
sense of natural order or 'laws of nature'. How could humans,
individually or collectively, affect the divine world for their own
advantage?
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Stages:
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Numen/numina:
mysterious and impersonal forces in natural process.
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With time, a
distinction developed between the force itself and the form of
expression, between rain and the force of rain. The latter
expressed in theriomorphic
terms.
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In the
anthropomorphic stage, when gods begin to take on the appearance
and personality of humans (though they are more powerful and
immortal). E.g., Isis and Horus
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No clear distinction
between the natural and the supernatural
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Regarding polytheism.
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Though the gods were
everywhere, and in everything, there was, concurrently, a clear
tendency to syncretism.
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Tensions in world
explained by competition between deities, not so much as
representatives of good and evil, but of opposing forces. In this
cosmic struggle how were humans to know what was right? Led to
fatalism.
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Israelite religion. Critical
is the transformation from a tribal to a universal religion, from
particularism to universalism.
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Genesis
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shares many notions
with other religions of ANE. Creation tale, the great flood
being but two examples.
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Note also that
monotheism not clearly established in Gen. and Ex.
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The Godess Inana (Ishtar) - Goddess of Love and War and
her battle
with the mountain, Ebih (Kur)
Creation myths
Flood myths
On the similarity between views in the Bible and
Mesopotamian religious beliefs.
Of course the Hebrew iteration
of the Flood story is not coincidence. For a time, the HEBREWS lived in
SUMER, home to Abraham's people. Nomadic people, they left the fertile
river valleys and headed for CANAAN and later EGYPT, taking with them
ancient accounts of floods and righteous people whose obedience and wisdom
helped them to survive the consuming waters.
Nor is the function of the
snake coincidental either. The Hebrews find the powerful, mysterious
serpent in their creation story and the Garden of Eden, which surely was
located in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley, not the dry vistas of Canaan
or the arid Sinai peninsula. But while, for the Sumerians, the snake is
merely deceitful and clever, the snake becomes the symbol of creeping evil
for the Hebrews.
Gods and goddesses have
epithets - ELOHIM: The plural form of the word God (El) YHVH:
Yahweh/Yehovah The most important Name of God: The Eternal ADONAI: The
plural form for Lord or Master
Abraham
Evidence for how Sumerians thought about social stratification and role
of central government
Praise Poem of
Shulgi
(c. 2100 BC) from The Electronic Text Corpus of
Sumerian Literature
The
Annals of Sargon king of Assyria (722–705 B.C.), successor to Shalmaneser V.
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Maps
Sumer and Old
Egypt 2500 BC [Belmonte]
Near East
Empire of Akkad under Saragon I 2200 BC [Belmonte]
Empire of Ur view of Near
East 2050 BC [Belmonte]
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Near East at
the time of the Hyksos Invasion1750 BC [Belmonte]
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Map of Near
East during the Old Assyrian Empire of Shamsi-Adad 1700 BC [Belmonte]
Old
Assyrian Empire Trade Routes
Late Bronze Age 1250-1000
BCE [OSSHE Historical Atlas]
Mycenaeans and
Hittites
Sea People [OSSHE
Historical Atlas]
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Links to Ancient Readings -
Primary Texts in translation
Links to Ancient Page
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