The Origin of Civilization and the State

SOC 370: Social Change

Dr. Kimberly Martin

Elman Service’s Levels of Sociocultural Integration

Bands

Tribes

Chiefdoms

States

Empires

Bands• Small (30-50 individuals) groups, • Egalitarian groups, • Usually nomadic/semi-nomadic

hunter/foragers, • Social organization based on personal

kinship relationships,• Use reciprocity to distribute goods and

services,• Gender and age division of labor• Situational leadership

TribesSmall (100-500 individuals),

Egalitarian groups, usually nomadic/semi-nomadic or villages

Horticultural or pastoralists

Social organization based on lineage membership where lineages are not ranked

Distribution of goods and services through reciprocity

Part time economic specialization

Leaders selected by personal qualifications

No ability to enforce

ChiefdomsMedium-sized (1000’s of individuals),

Ranked or stratified groups,

Usually sedentary

Horticultural or pastoralists, occasionally hunters and gatherers/foragers

Hierarchical social organization based on ranked lineages (kin-based)

Distribution of goods and services through redistribution or market system depending on amount of surplus

Part-time or full time economic specialization

Centralized government with a paramount chief

No centralized formal enforcement of rules or ability to suppress deviance and revolt

Intermediate between tribes and states

StatesLarge (100,000 to millions of individuals),

Stratified groups with social classes and a ruling class,

Urban settlements and large populations,

Agricultural subsistence and large surpluses

Social organization based on non-kin relationships

Distribution of goods and services through a market system (general purpose money)

Full time economic specialization/industrialization including political leaders and military

Monopoly of force, both internal and external

System of law (rules with centralized enforcement)

Dispute resolution through formal (judicial) procedures

Bureaucratic systems

Formal leaders (monarchy or elected or by force)

Empires

• A state that has conquered and rules by force one or more other societies. The force can be military, but it can be non-violent coercion as well

• The Roman Empire• The Spanish Empire• The British Empire

Fried’s Materialism

Morton Fried’s Theory of Evolution of Societies through the development of Social Stratification

1. Egalitarian Societies = Bands/Tribes(no prestige, wealth or power differences)

2. Ranked Societies = Chiefdoms(prestige differences, not power or wealth)

3. Stratified Societies = States/Empires(wealth, power and prestige differences)

StatesStates are always stratified

All stratified societies are not states (there are stratified chiefdoms - e.g. Hawaii)

Which came first? States or stratification?

If stratification leads to states, what leads to stratification?

States are necessary for civilizations

Civilizations are states that have acquired: cities, writing, & monumental architecture

Using Archaeological and Historical Evidence

• This is a diachronic approach that utilizes evidence from different periods of time over the course of the last 5000 years

• Archaeological and historical evidence directly reflect change through time

The Rise of States (and Civilizations)

• Eight major centers where states and/or civilizations arose independently world wide = Parallel Evolution

Mesopotamia Indus Valley

Egypt Europe

Africa outside of Egypt Mesoamerica

China Peru

General Characteristics

• Cities or ceremonial centers

• Centralized or City-State governments

• Economic specialization

• Agriculture

• Stratification

• Large populations (10,000 -400,000)

Sometimes Also

• Trade networks

• Irrigation agriculture

• Theocracy

• Monumental architecture

• Writing

• Centralized military

• Feudal systems

How Fast?

Much evidence seems to suggest a

“punctuated equilibrium” model for the change to state societies.

Many sites of early states seem to have emerged very rapidly, with monumental architecture being build over a relatively short period of time.

Five Theories about the Origin of the State and Civilization

1. Marxist Explanations

2. Population growth

3. Irrigation agriculture

4. Trade/economic exchange

5. Circumscription Theory (Carniero)

1. Marxist Conflict Theory

• Stratified societies are unstable because of the imbalance in resource control

• The ruling class needs the state and its monopoly of force to maintain their wealth and power.

• Elites compete over shares of the surplus

• Exploited class resist exploitation, but are disorganized and easily overcome by force

2. Populations Pressure• Populations pressure leads to scarcity of and

increased demand for land• Land becomes privately owned and defended

as property – differential access to low-risk crop land.

• Land owners monopolize a major resource and become the ruling class

• The ruling class needs the state and its monopoly of force to defend themselves from challenges from the peasantry

Vs.

3. Irrigation Agriculture

• Irrigation agriculture requires cooperative work to build public works like terracing or other systems to transport water

• Massive projects require large scale organization and administration

• This administration morphs into the state, as the irrigation system allows more food to be grown, more population growth and more demand for food.

4. Trade• Internal trade• External trade• State serves to protect merchants and negotiates

trade advantages • State helps extract surplus from peasants (force)• Strong, stable state is necessary for trade to thrive• Trade for subsistence Vs.• Trade for exotic luxuries (elite control of exotic goods)• Competition by leaders to provide luxuries to others in

the upper class

5. Circumscription Theory• Where geographical obstacles existed that

prevented expansion, population pressure and crowding lead to conflict, conquest, slavery and empire building

• Social circumscription is also possible where neighboring groups prevent expansion

• Resource concentration is an other variation on this theme – resource concentration causes people to crowd together in one place

Functionalist Theories

• Assume that the state is a solution for problems associated with

• Population pressure

• Trade networks

• Building monumental architecture or irrigation systems

• Circumscription

Sanderson’s Choice?

• A combination of Circumscription Theory and Marxist class conflict

Study GuideBands Indus Valley

Tribes China

Chiefdoms Mesoamerican

States Peru

Empires Cities

Archaeological evidence Ceremonial centers

Ethnographic evidence Theocracy

Synchronic Marx

Diachronic Population pressure

Mesopotamia Irrigations systems

Egypt Trade

Africa (not Egypt) Circumscription theory

Functionalist theories