Rise of the State

From the Agricultural Revolution to the Hierarchical State

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Outline

• 1) Hierarchical state society in art: the stele of Hammurabi’s code

• 2) Two theories of history: L or U? • 3) What caused the agricultural revolution?– Stages

• 4) What caused the rise of the state?

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Shamash and Hammurabi

• Which is which? (Spodek, 59)• Gods look like kings (and vice versa)– Anthropocentric or regicentric?

• Separation of ruler from ruled • Separation of divine from human• God-given laws cement human divisions– Rich and poor– Men and women

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Threefold approach to society

• Relation to nature – technology • Relation between people – social structure• Belief system – form of consciousness• Harmony between these levels (normally)

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Historical “fall” (summary)

• On technological level– from dependence on independent nature– to control over nature

• On social level– from family-based, egalitarian society– to class-based, male dominant society– rulers are all powerful

• On consciousness level– Animist oneness > Gods/priests are all powerful

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L Theory of History

• 110,000 years of kinship society• 5,500 years of “civilization” – Growing technology– Increasing social inequality – Plus growing environmental destruction

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U theory of history

• 110,000 years of kinship society with primitive technology

• 5,500 years of inequality and oppression– But also, creation of advanced technology

• Future: global kinship with advanced technology

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End of “civilization”?

• Social changes: Growth of democracy, equality – Continued inequalities or new equality?– Political rights for free men: 238 years old

(American revolution) – Civil rights for slaves: 149 years old (Civil War) – Political rights for women: 94 years old (Women’s

right to vote, 19th Amendment, 1920); – end of segregation in the US south: 49 years old

(Voting Rights Act of 1965)?

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New global kinship?

• Nature, technology and consciousness– Continued domination over nature or– New ecology movement > consciousness of our

oneness with nature, with the earth (film “Avatar”)

• Tech: Transportation and communications: one world family (global kinship)– Or are we now slaves to the Internet?

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What caused the agricultural revolution?

• 1) Discovery of new technology?• 2) Population increase? • 3) Climate change?

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Explanations: why agriculture?

• (1) New technology, discovery?• What did women gatherers know? • How much work is needed? (Spodek, 43)– Hunter gatherers: 800-1000 hours– Agriculturalists:1000-1300 hours

• Which work is harder?• Who is healthier?

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(2) Population increase?

• H-G: 1 sq km: 9 people– Bands of 25 people each, loosely related > 500 in

exogamous tribe (Spodek, 25)• Agriculture: 200-400 people per square km• Biology of reproduction– Lactating H-G mothers carrying infants up to four

years– Sedentary agricultural mothers

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(3) Climate change

• Ending of last ice age 15,000 years ago (S, 43)–plains > forests –= dwindling of ecology of great herds–Plus: hunting continues as before–> Ecological disaster

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Difference between Eurasia-Africa and the Americas

• In Americas: – Early extinction of domestic animals: cattle, sheep, horses,

pigs – Why no wheel in “New World”?– What caused defeat of Aztecs, Incas, by Cortes, European

invaders?– Technological lag? Vulnerability to European diseases?

• In Eurasian/African land mass– Larger land mass– New technologies developed before extinctions

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Paradox of Paleolithic ecological catastrophe

• Respect for nature of early animistic peoples– Descent into caves, rituals for renewing animal, plant

species (magic)

• >Destruction of nature– New circumstances (climate change, global warming)– Hunter/gatherers didn’t know what they were doing– Gilgamesh & Enkidu kill the Humbaba

• See film Princess Mononoki

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Is technological “control” bad for nature?

• What saved animal species in Old World?– More time for changes to take place in larger territory– Agricultural-herding (neolithic) revolutions: herders,

agriculturalists produce their own means of survival

• = interpenetration, humanization of nature– From magic to practical activity– New technology creates possibility of a new, more real

sense of harmony with nature– But this did not happen. Why not?

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Civilization: break with nature• Many things cause terror and wonder, yet nothing • is more terrifying and wonderful than man. • This thing goes across the gray • sea on the blasts of winter • storms, passing beneath • waters towering 'round him. The Earth, • eldest of the gods, • unwithering and untiring, this thing wears down • as his plows go back and forth year after year• furrowing her with the issue of horses. (Antigone, 332-41)

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So why the passage in Antigone?

• Sense of violation of Nature– Break from religion of nature– Sense of guilt and pride

• But not the result of technology per se– Technology can save nature

• So: need to consider the new social factor: hierarchical state, division of rich and poor, master and slave– Control of people over people > break from, control over nature– What people do to animals and the natural world, they first do

to each other

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Stages in agricultural revolution

• 1) Slash-and-burn (10,000 BCE)• 2) Early hoe agriculture on flood plains– Tigris and Euphrates– Nile

• 3) Hierarchical irrigation state 3000 BCE• 4) Iron plow agriculture on rain-watered lands

(1000 BC . . . )• 5) Next stage: 500 CE in Europe ??

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Slash and burn agriculture

• Cooperative social relations• Hoe agriculture, women’s work• Use of ash -- limitations • Nomadic way of life continues – Life is difficult

• Today: Brazil – Amazon rain forests

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Flood plains of great rivers

• Simple tools (hoe) • Natural, regular fertilization of soil by flooding

rivers• Abundant harvest –> surplus of grain– Stored in granaries– Life is easy (easier)

• Social level: Continuation of ancient cooperative kinship system

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Hymn to the Nile

• Praise to thee, O Nile, that issueth from the earth, and cometh to nourish Egypt. . . .

• That maketh barley and createth wheat, so that he may cause the temples to keep festivals. . . .

• If he be sluggish . . . millions of men perish.• Offer is made to every other god as is done for

the Nile . . .

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Location of Garden of Eden

• “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. . . . And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Genesis 2:8

• From slash-and-burn poverty to abundance of paradise?

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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?

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1) Large Populations without States

• Difficulties of uniting different kinship societies. But not impossible

• Hunter-gatherer assemblies of local groups• Tiv people in Africa united 1 million• Iroquois Federation united separate tribes• Hence: large populations can be organized

without a “state”

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2) Military necessity?

• 1) Traditional system of military: armed men of the kinship group– American Indian military power: not separate

army

• 2) “State” = military power over the people (Gilgamesh)

• Hence: defense is possible without a “state”

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3) Social problems of organizing irrigation

• Separate villages multiply along river• Population growth > move away from river• > need for cooperation between kinship

groups• It is possible to have cooperation without a

“state”– Iroquois voluntary union of five nations – Maintains democratic constitution

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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

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4) Exploitation of surplus

• 1) Production of surplus – based on higher productivity of simple labor– Due to natural fertility of flooding river

• 2) Surplus as target– From the outside > military protection needed– From within the village > from the military

protectors themselves• 3) Chief chosen by people > rules over them

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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)

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State as System of Inequality

• State as class-divided, hierarchy• Power in hands of a few• Standing army under rule of elite• Women subordinate to men• Slavery

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