Agricultural Societies

The evolution of Government and Religion From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy

Text extracted from

Guns Germs and Steel

By Jared Diamond, 1997

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Government and Religion

• Descendents of those societies that earliest achieved – centralized government

– organized religion

• ended up dominating the modern world

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Government and Religion

• 4 main forces of history:

• Resulting in the broadest patterns

– government & religion

– germs

– writing

– technology

Babylon

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Government and Religion

• How did government and religion arise?

• How did they become combined?

King Solomon

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Levels of Social Organization

• Bands

• Tribes

• Chiefdoms

• States

China: early state society

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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

http://www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/images/bushman-hunter-gathere-rsa-xauslodge.jpg

Bushman

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

http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_aboriginal_history/Aboriginal%20Jimmy%20Walkabout_%20pitjantjara_tribe.jpg

Australian Aboriginal

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

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~lctodd/image1.gif

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

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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

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Tribal chief, Brazil

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

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• 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

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Government

IdeologyEconomy

Hunting and Gathering Societies

Hunting & Gathering Nature Religions

Bands and Tribes

Reciprocal Exchange God and Goddess Worship

Egalitarian

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

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Chiefdoms

• No chiefdoms left in 20th century

• Prime land taken by larger state societies

• Chiefdoms consolidated into states

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Chiefdoms

• Usually have Public Architecture – Temples

– Tombs

Easter Islands

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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  

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/De_Bry_Chief_Virginia.jpg/761px-De_Bry_Chief_Virginia.jpg

Chief

• Held monopoly on right to use force

• Held recognizable, hereditary office

• Wore distinguishing clothes: demanded respect

http://www.indianahumanities.org/Wethepeople/203/Indian_Chief_with_Head_Dress.jpg

Chief

• Was thought of as a god– or had a hotline to the gods

• 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

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/drube004/architecture/image/Taj%20Mahal.jpg

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

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Traders

• Traders did not make a profit – were agents of

the empire

• Goods traded on a fixed-price basis

• Did not buy low and sell high

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Luxury Goods

• Food surpluses generated by common people feed – Chief

– Bureaucrats & Priests

– Craft Specialists

• Luxury Goods reserved for Chiefs

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Contribution Enforced

• In Mesopotamia, police ensured that farmers contributed

• Impersonality of city life – ends feelings of obligation

of Chief to people

– or vice versa

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Good Chiefdoms

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

– Religion

– Defense

Roman Aqueducthttp://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/44052812_a0e766a843.jpg

Kleptocracies

• At worst, chiefdoms were kleptocracies

• Transferred net wealth from commoners to upper class

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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

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110901/imagesAll/emperor.jpg

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

http://attendingtheworld.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/crusades.jpg

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

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Earliest States

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

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

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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 http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/egypt/images/harvest.jpg

Mesopotamia

• Food produced by 4 specialist groups – Cereal farmers

– Herders

– Fishermen

– Orchard and Garden growers

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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

http://www.edupic.net/Images/SocialStudies/mesopotamia_ashurnasirpal2.jpg

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

Mesopotamian slaves

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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

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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

Mesopotamian Temple

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Expansion of Agricultural Societies

Small Group

Conquest Land Agriculture Slaves

Expanded Conquest Etc.

Food Population Technology

Government

IdeologyEconomy

Agricultural Societies

Agriculture State Religions

Chiefdoms, States

Redistribution, Tribute

Male dominated

Kleptocracies, Elites

Conquest, Slavery

Kings = Gods

Central Temple

Agricultural Society Hierarchy

Elite

Conquered & Exploited: Peasants, Slaves, Workers

Wealth, Tribute

Conquest

Food, Resources

Wealth and Poverty

Elite

Conquered & Exploited: Peasants, Slaves, Workers

Wealth, Tribute

Food, Resources

Wealth:Own land, Well-fed Educated, Health care, Opportunities

Poverty:Landless, hungry, uneducated, unhealthy, no opportunities

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

http://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/corinthians/maps/empire2a.gif

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

suicidially: fanaticism

Arab Muslim Empire

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~helfgott/img/map-arab-empire.png

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

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Aristotle

Irrigation Theory

• Major civilizations had large-scale irrigation: – Mesopotamia,

– Egypt

– China

– Mesoamerica

• Large-scale irrigation requires centralized bureaucracy for – Construction

– Maintenance

– Management

http://www.love-egypt.com/images/egypt-agriculture.jpg

Irrigation, Egypt

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

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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

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Population density

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

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Food Production Leads toSocial Complexity

• Sedentary living required for:– Possessions

– Technology

– Crafts

– public works

– control of people

Mayan Temples, Mexico http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=80461&rendTypeId=4

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

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Amalgamation of Smaller Units

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

joined together,

– American colonies joined together

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Amalgamation of Smaller Units

• Occurs by conquest among chiefdoms – Zulu state

– Hawaii, Tahiti

– Aztecs, Incas • before Spanish arrived

– Rome, Macedonian empire

– Etc.

Roman Expansionhttp://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=1040&rendTypeId=4

After Conquest

• Bands:– survivors can move

away

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After Conquest

• Tribes:– Need the land

– Territory occupied.

– No need for slaves

– No need for survivors, • except women as wives

– Defeated men are killed

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After Conquest

• 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

http://www.euro-africsystemsenterprise.org.uk/captured_slaves.jpg

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

http://www.reformation.org/aztec-empire-map.jpg

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

Aztec tribute listhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Codex_Mendoza_folio_47r.jpg/408px-Codex_Mendoza_folio_47r.jpg