Agricultural Societies

Chapter 14

From Egalitarianism to KleptocracyThe evolution of Government and ReligionText extracted from

Guns Germs and Steel

By Jared Diamond, 1997

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0393317552.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Government and Religion

• “Descendents of those societies that achieved – centralized government

and organized religion

– earliest – ended up dominating the

modern world”

Government and Religion

• 4 main forces of history:• Resulting in the broadest patterns

– government & religion

– germs

– writing

– technology

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

Levels of Social Organization

• Bands

• Tribes

• Chiefdoms

• States

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

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

Bands

• No stratification into classes

• Egalitarian leadership based on –  personality

–  strength

–  intelligence

–  fighting skill

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

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

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

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

Reciprocity

• Reciprocity was the Basis of Early Economic Systems

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

• 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   

Kerekere in Moala

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

Chiefdoms

• No chiefdoms left in 20th century

• Prime land taken by larger state societies

• Chiefdoms consolidated into states

Chiefdoms

• Usually have Public Architecture – Temples

– Tombs

Easter Islands

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

 

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

Chief

• Centralized authority: – Monopoly on information

– Levels of Bureaucrats work under Chief

– Many specialized jobs that can be done by slaves

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

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

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

Luxury Goods

• Food surpluses generated by common people feed – Chief

– Bureaucrats & Priests

– Craft Specialists

• Luxury Goods reserved for Chiefs

Contribution Enforced

• In Mesopotamia, police ensured that farmers contributed

• Impersonality of city life – ends feelings of obligation of

Chief to people

– or vice versa

Good Chiefdoms

• Good chiefdoms used tribute to provide important services to entire society – Irrigation

– Religion

– Defense

Roman Aquaduct

Kleptocracies

• At worst, chiefdoms were kleptocracies

• Transferred net wealth from commoners to upper class

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

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

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

Earliest States

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

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

Mesopotamia

• Food produced by 4 specialist groups – Cereal farmers

– Herders

– Fishermen

– Orchard and Garden growers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Food Production Leads toSocial Complexity

• Sedentary living required for:– Possessions

– Technology

– Crafts

– public works

– control of people

Mayan Temples, Mexico

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

Amalgamation of Smaller Units

• Occurs by merger under threat of external force: – 40 Cherokee chiefdoms

joined together,

– American colonies joined together

Amalgamation of Smaller Units

• Occurs by conquest among chiefdoms – Zulu state

– Hawaii, Tahiti

– Aztecs, Incas (before Spanish arrived)

– Rome, Macedonian empire

– Etc. Aztec Empire

After Conquest

• Bands:– survivors can move

away

After Conquest

• Tribes:– Need the land

– Territory occupied.

– No need for slaves

– No need for survivors, • except women as wives

– Defeated men are killed

After Conquest by States and Chiefdoms

• Defeated can be used as slaves

• Or defeated can be exploited – left in place to produce food,

goods

• Deprived of political autonomy

• Made to pay taxes, tribute

• Amalgamate their society – into victorious state or chiefdom

Aztec Tribute

• Aztec Empire received tribute from its subjects and had tribute lists

• Spanish wanted tribute from Mexico

• Interested in Aztec Empire’s tribute lists

Aztec Tribute

• Each year Aztec subjects paid Aztecs: • 7,000 tons of corn • 4,000 tons of amaranth • 2,000,000 cotton cloaks • Huge quantities of Cacao beans, war costumes, shields, feather

headdresses, amber