Agricultural Societies Chapter 14 From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy The evolution of Government and Religion

1. Agricultural SocietiesChapter 14From Egalitarianism to KleptocracyThe evolution of Government and Religion Text extracted from Guns Germs and Steel By Jared Diamond, 1997 http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0393317552.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

2. Government and Religion • “Descendents of those societies that achieved • centralized government and organized religion • earliest • ended up dominating the modern world”

3. Government and Religion • 4 main forces of history: • Resulting in the broadest patterns • government & religion • germs • writing • technology

4. Government and Religion • How did government and religion arise? • How did they become combined? King Solomon http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/arts/visual_arts.cfm

5. Levels of Social Organization • Bands • Tribes • Chiefdoms • States

6. Bands • Tiny Populations: typically 5-80 people • Most are close relatives by birth or marriage • All humans lived in bands until 40,000 years ago In recent history: • African Pygmies, Bushmen • Australian Aborigines • Eskimos

7. Bands • Usually nomadic: • live in areas where food is scarce • Land used by whole group • No specialization: • all able-bodied individuals forage for food • Economic system: • Reciprocal Exchange • No laws, police, or treaties to resolve conflicts: • But being closely related helps

8. Bands • No stratification into classes • Egalitarian leadership based on •  personality •  strength •  intelligence •  fighting skill

9. Fayu in New Guinea • Four clans totaling 400 people • Normally live as single families scattered in swampy area • Come together once or twice a year to negotiate brides • Formerly numbered 2,000 • Population reduced by Fayu killing Fayu • Lacked political and social mechanisms to resolve disputes

10. Tribes • Society with hundreds of people, usually settled in many villages • Few left today • Shared language and culture • More than one clan (kinship group) • Land belongs to clans within a tribe • Everyone knows everyone else by name and relationship

11. Tribes • Conflicts still solved by being closely related • If two New Guinea Tribesmen were both away from their villages and happened upon one another • They would engage in a long discussion to determine possible family ties • Otherwise, no reason not to kill one another

12. Tribes • Social System egalitarian • No upper or lower class • Each has debts and obligations to many others • No one can become more wealthy • Government still egalitarian • Decisions are made in a group • “Big Man” would have limited power, may look and live like everyone else

13. Reciprocity • Reciprocity was the Basis of Early Economic Systems

14. Reciprocity • Gift giving creates an obligation to return similar gifts • Feasting improves relations, prevents hostility, is an excellent way to “store” food • Reciprocity leads to intermarriage • Villages are connected by multiple ties of kinship • Reciprocity results in food security, balances inequities • Political leadership is bestowed on those that give the most

15. Kerekere in Moala • Moalans live in 1200 scattered villages in Fiji Pacific Islands • Kerekere is a formal request for a good or service • Can only kerekere a relative, but everyone  are relatives • Are duty bound to honor a kerekere if you have what is asked for • This system evens out inequity • Prestige comes from giving more than taking   

16. Chiefdoms • Population: several thousand to tens of thousands • Arose about 7,500 years ago with rising populations • In 1492, widespread in •  N. and S. America •  Africa •  Polynesia

17. Chiefdoms • No chiefdoms left in 20th century • Prime land taken by larger state societies • Chiefdoms consolidated into states

18. Chiefdoms • Usually have Public Architecture • Temples • Tombs Easter Islands

19. Chiefdoms • Most people unrelated to others • People don’t know most others by name • For first time in history, people had to learn how to encounter strangers regularly • without attempting to kill them

20. Chief • Held monopoly on right to use force • Held recognizable, hereditary office • Wore distinguishing clothes: demanded respect • Was thought of as a god, or had a hotline to the gods

21. Chief • Centralized authority: • Monopoly on information • Levels of Bureaucrats work under Chief • Many specialized jobs that can be done by slaves

22. Redistributive Economy • Chief receives food from everyone, then • Throws feast to redistribute • Stores it for later redistribution • Keeps much of it himself (tribute) • Chief also claims labor for construction of public works: • Irrigation, • Lavish Tombs 20,000 workers built the Taj Mahal

23. Redistribution • Chief receives foodstuffs, goods from many • because he has power • Chief has power because • he regularly directs a flow of goods to his followers • Early city-states operated on this principle

24. Traders • Traders did not make a profit but were agents of the empire • Goods traded on a fixed-price basis • Did not buy low and sell high

25. Luxury Goods • Food surpluses generated by common people feed • Chief • Bureaucrats & Priests • Craft Specialists • Luxury Goods reserved for Chiefs

26. Contribution Enforced • In Mesopotamia, police ensured that farmers contributed • Impersonality of city life • ends feelings of obligation of Chief to people • or vice versa

27. Good Chiefdoms • Good chiefdoms used tribute to provide important services to entire society • Irrigation • Religion • Defense Roman Aquaduct

28. Kleptocracies • At worst, chiefdoms were kleptocracies • Transferred net wealth from commoners to upper class

29. Kleptocracies • How do kleptocracies keep from being overthrown? • Disarm the populace, arm the elite • Redistribute tribute in popular ways • Use monopoly of force to keep public order • Construct an ideology or religion that justifies kleptocracy

30. State Religion • State Religion • Provides bond between people • not based on kinship • keeps them from killing each other • Gives warriors a motive for sacrificing life in battle: • now much more effective in conquest

31. States • Populations of 50,000 to 1 Billion • Usually literate elites • sometimes literate population • Arose 3,700 BC in Mesopotamia • Later in Mesoamerica, China, Southeast Asia, Andes, West Africa Babylon

32. Earliest States

33. States • True cities, characterized by • Monumental public works • Palaces of rulers • Accumulation of capital from tribute or taxes • Concentration of people other than food producers

34. States • Early states: hereditary leader equivalent to a king • Democracies today: crucial knowledge still available to only a few • Central control, redistribution of tribute more far-reaching • Even farmers not self-sufficient

35. Mesopotamia • Food produced by 4 specialist groups • Cereal farmers • Herders • Fishermen • Orchard and Garden growers

36. Mesopotamia • State took produce from each farming group • Redistributed necessary supplies • and the other foods not produced • Exchanged wool by long distance trade • for other essential raw materials • Paid food rations to laborers • who maintained irrigation systems for farmers

37. Slavery • Many states adopted slavery on much larger scale than chiefdoms because • More use for slave labor • More economic specialization • More mass production • More public works • Warfare on a larger scale meant more captives available

38. Bureaucracies • More complex bureaucracies • Formalized laws, judiciary, police • Laws often written (by literate elite) • Writing not developed until formation of state societies • Mesopotamia • Mesoamerica Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia

39. Religion • Early: state religions, standardized temples • Many kings divine • Kings often head of state religion • Mesopotamian Temple was center of • Religion • Economic redistribution • Writing • Crafts technology Babylonian Ziggurat

40. Organization of States • States organized on political and territorial lines: not kinship and tribe boundaries • States and empires often are multiethnic and multilingual • Bureaucrats selected more on ability than heredity • Modern states have non-hereditary leadership Roman Empire

41. Why Do States Arise? • More complex societies usually conquer less complex ones • Advantage of weapons, technology, numbers • Centralized decision making more efficient in conquest • Official religions, patriotic fervor • make troops willing to fight suicidally: fanaticism Arab Muslim Empire

42. How Do Chiefdoms Become States? • Aristotle: States are  the natural condition of human society. • knew only Greek Societies of  400 BC • Rousseau: States formed by a social contract • a rational decision of people based on self interest. • Never happened this way • Small groups do not give up their sovereignty willingly

43. Irrigation Theory • Major civilizations had large-scale irrigation: • Mesopotamia, • Egypt • China • Mesoamerica • Large-scale irrigation requires centralized bureaucracy for • Construction • Maintenance • Management Pre-Incan Irrigation

44. Irrigation Theory Disputed • States formed to create irrigation systems? • But irrigation came after states formed • States did not always have centrally controlled irrigation Hanging Gardens, Babylon

45. Population Theory • Strong correlation between size of population and complexity of society • Autocatalysis: population growth leads to social complexity • Social complexity leads to intensified food production and population growth

46. Food Production Leads toSocial Complexity • Requires seasonal labor.  • After harvest, labor used for • public works, • wars of conquest • Stored surpluses permit economic specialization, social stratification: • feed chiefs, elite, scribes, craftspeople, specialists, • feed farmers while they are working on public works

47. Food Production Leads toSocial Complexity • Sedentary living required for: • Possessions • Technology • Crafts • public works • control of people Mayan Temples, Mexico

48. Large Populations Require Complex Social System • Conflict resolution needed between unrelated people:  • need laws and authority • Communal decisions impossible:  • need structure • Reciprocal economy impossible:  • Need redistributive economy • Density of population must be organized Argebam, Iran

49. Amalgamation of Smaller Units • Occurs by merger under threat of external force: • 40 Cherokee chiefdoms joined together, • American colonies joined together

50. Amalgamation of Smaller Units • Occurs by conquest among chiefdoms • Zulu state • Hawaii, Tahiti • Aztecs, Incas (before Spanish arrived) • Rome, Macedonian empire • Etc. Aztec Empire