The First Cities and States

SOC 111Introduction to Anthropology

THE FIRST CITIES AND STATES

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

QUIZ DISCUSSIONSWas the origin of food production

good or bad?

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.

The Four Great Early River Valley

States of the Old World

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).