MT1 Week1 Flashcards

Question

2. What caused surplus: Irrigation theories

Answer 1

* Many early states emerge in dry river valleys * Breasted suggests that the exceptional fertility of the Nile and the Euphrates floodplains was primary cause of rise of states in these valleys * Floods provided new silt/water each year – produced surplus that led to exchange, wealth and the support of specialists

Answer 2

Wittfogel’s hydraulic state theory (irrigation leads to central authority) * Life in dry river valleys requires the development of a group to organize irrigation and to redistribute surplus production * People submit themselves to this authority voluntarily * Authority eventually controls other activities: e.g., trade * The authority controls water distribution and can divert more water to its own fields, surplus to obtain prestige goods… * Authority eventually becomes corrupt •More recent studies show that Egypt/Mesopotamian communities started irrigation from natural collection basins with small canals to their fields and controlled their own irrigation long before state control Current thoughts on irrigation * Irrigation is important in many state structures * But it took several centuries before rulers took over farmers’ canal systems and built greater irrigation networks * Also irrigation systems are found also in wetter conditions -- not just dry ones – Subak system in Bali, Indonesia is integrated into the religious and political system

Answer 3

* Others argue that the need to trade for raw materials and other goods stimulated long-distance exchange * Opportunity for emergent elite to accumulate exotic materials to build prestige and unequal levels of wealth (prestige goods economy) •Evidence of many chiefdoms that participated in exchange of prestige goods and shared ideologies to create regional and local influence (interaction spheres)

Answer 4

•If fertile farmland is bordered by desert, mountains, ocean then it is circumscribed (e.g. farmland is limited) Farmers settle on the floodplain/fertile lands until all land is taken up * The population keeps increasing and puts pressure on food resources * Only option is to take other people’s land •One group takes neighbour’s land by force until all of the land is under one leader (circumscription means people have no where to run) * As each group is conquered it moves into the bottom rung of the hierarchy – gels into classes * Ruler serves purpose of increasing agricultural production by taking more land/developing technologies for intensive agriculture (e.g. irrigation) Problems with Carneiro’s theory •Not all states emerge in circumscribed environments * States engage in warfare, but unclear if warfare is ‘cause’ of state formation (certainly contributes to empire-building) * Urban centers often develop around shrines – powers of place can attract settlers

Answer 5

Lots of theories, but single causes and universal models are generally discarded * Previous models all have elements that are found in many states: irrigation, warfare, long-distance trade * No single push! * Most archaeologists now view states as developing gradually overtime and from multiple causes.

Answer 6

* Power needs to be created at every level of society * Economic power is ability to create specialized workforce & to organize surplus storage and distribution (including trade for prestige goods) * Social power requires development of an ideology of social relations and an understanding of the world that bonds a group of unrelated people * Political power tied into social and religious ideology represented in symbols, architecture, art that legitimates social inequality and the right of priests/rulers to surplus production and prestige

Answer 7

Core of cities: temples, pyramids, plazas for elaborate ceremonies where ideologies were enacted * Religious/secular rulers perform rituals in these settings to show that they were the rightful keepers of the cosmic order * Had right to surplus wealth, power and prestige

Answer 8

* Ideology, symbols, architecture, performance * Ability to impose authority through administration and military who are not their kin * Had to provide spiritual, economic and physical security for those they governed * Needed to be successful in war and diplomacy * States were hard to maintain

Answer 9

Research tends to focus on occupational hierarchy as social difference * States and empires were ethnically diverse – created different factions in society * Different groups introduced new ideas, technologies, religions, political ideas * Sometimes factions seized opportunities to overthrow the state

Answer 10

•Explains how internal differences and external competition cause states to rise and fall New larger polities can develop from state collapse and these can introduce new ways of administration, new ideologies and technology…which can also lead to collapse and a breaking-down into many new competing states that are economically more sustainable… •Collapse can result in opportunities…

Answer 11

States require enormous organization and resources unlike any other type of society * States tend to be fragile * No single factor causes states to rise – no single factor causes them to fall Multiple factors lead to collapse •Environmental disasters or plagues •Impact of state on its environment (stressing resources) •Weak rulers or rulers who fail to control the forces of the cosmos •Warfare •Civil war

MT1 Week1 Flashcards

(35 cards)