ARKY 325 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS LATEST
UPDATE ALREADY GRADED A+
What caused surplus? Irrigation Theories
- Food surplus, diversified farming economies, and irrigation agriculture accepted elements of Childe's
theory
- Many early states emerge in dry river valleys
- James Henry Breasted ca. 1916 suggested that the exceptional fertility of the Nile and the Euphrates
floodplains was primary cause of rise of states in these valleys - the "Fertile Crescent Hypothesis"
- Floods provided new silt/water each year - produced surplus that led to exchange, wealth, and the
support of specialists
Hydraulic States: Irrigation more than surplus
- Karl Wittfogel's "Hydraulic hypothesis" (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, generating
surplus to obtain prestige goods...
- Authority is despotic (total power)
- More recent studies show that Egyptian/
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
Technology and Trade Stimulate states
- Others argue that the need for raw materials and other goods stimulated long-distance exchange,
resulting in the development of states.
- 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)
Warfare: Carneiro's "Coercive Hypothesis" Environmental Circumscription Model
- 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 the land is under one leader (circumscription means
people have nowhere 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 Carnerio's Theory
- not all states emerge in circumscribed environments
- states engage in warfare, but it is unclear if warfare is the 'cause' of state formation (certainly
contributes to empire-building)
- urban centers often develop around shrines- powers of place can attract settles
Current Ideas on State Origins
- 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 - linear explanations that invoke irrigation, trade, or warfare as singular causes are
, inadequate.
- Most archaeologists now view states as evolving over time and from multiple causes.
- Today, emphasis placed on interactionist perspectives - societies consist of individuals and groups
interacting with one another and pursuing any number of agendas.
- Power, ideology, factionalism, and individual agency are key elements.
Social Theories with Multiple factors
Power needs to be created at every level of society.
- Economic power is ability to create a 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
Interplay among these three sources of power led to the development of dynamic society-wide
institutions.
Economic power
ability to control resources
- power over specialized production, the ability to organize diverse tasks of storage and food distribution
- develops interdependency between producers and consumers
- trade and exchange facilitate prestige goods, economics, necessitating organizations, record-keeping,
and supervision
- stratified society: elites, officials, commoners
Social Power
the capacity to alter the actions of others
- power of ideological symbols of culture and political commonality
- 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
UPDATE ALREADY GRADED A+
What caused surplus? Irrigation Theories
- Food surplus, diversified farming economies, and irrigation agriculture accepted elements of Childe's
theory
- Many early states emerge in dry river valleys
- James Henry Breasted ca. 1916 suggested that the exceptional fertility of the Nile and the Euphrates
floodplains was primary cause of rise of states in these valleys - the "Fertile Crescent Hypothesis"
- Floods provided new silt/water each year - produced surplus that led to exchange, wealth, and the
support of specialists
Hydraulic States: Irrigation more than surplus
- Karl Wittfogel's "Hydraulic hypothesis" (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, generating
surplus to obtain prestige goods...
- Authority is despotic (total power)
- More recent studies show that Egyptian/
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
Technology and Trade Stimulate states
- Others argue that the need for raw materials and other goods stimulated long-distance exchange,
resulting in the development of states.
- 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)
Warfare: Carneiro's "Coercive Hypothesis" Environmental Circumscription Model
- 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 the land is under one leader (circumscription means
people have nowhere 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 Carnerio's Theory
- not all states emerge in circumscribed environments
- states engage in warfare, but it is unclear if warfare is the 'cause' of state formation (certainly
contributes to empire-building)
- urban centers often develop around shrines- powers of place can attract settles
Current Ideas on State Origins
- 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 - linear explanations that invoke irrigation, trade, or warfare as singular causes are
, inadequate.
- Most archaeologists now view states as evolving over time and from multiple causes.
- Today, emphasis placed on interactionist perspectives - societies consist of individuals and groups
interacting with one another and pursuing any number of agendas.
- Power, ideology, factionalism, and individual agency are key elements.
Social Theories with Multiple factors
Power needs to be created at every level of society.
- Economic power is ability to create a 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
Interplay among these three sources of power led to the development of dynamic society-wide
institutions.
Economic power
ability to control resources
- power over specialized production, the ability to organize diverse tasks of storage and food distribution
- develops interdependency between producers and consumers
- trade and exchange facilitate prestige goods, economics, necessitating organizations, record-keeping,
and supervision
- stratified society: elites, officials, commoners
Social Power
the capacity to alter the actions of others
- power of ideological symbols of culture and political commonality
- 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
