agricultural societies chapter 14 from egalitarianism to kleptocracy the evolution of government and...

Agricultural Societies

Chapter 14

From Egalitarianism to KleptocracyThe evolution of Government and ReligionText extracted from

Guns Germs and Steel

By Jared Diamond, 1997

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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