Thursday, August 7, 2014

Simon Powers — Agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago was key to the rise of ancient despots

For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies, eating wild plants and animals. Inequality in these groups is thought to have been very low, with evidence suggesting food and other resources were shared equally between all individuals. In fact, in thehunter-gatherer societies that still exist today we see that all individuals have a say in group decision making. Although some individuals may act as leaders in the sense of guiding discussions, they cannot force others to follow them. 
But it seems that with the beginning of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, this changed. An elite class began to monopolise resources and were able to command the labour of others to do things, such as build monuments in their honour. So how was it that egalitarian societies, where all men were equal, transitioned into hierarchical societies where despots reigned?...
How early "anarcho-capitalism" may have led to stratified hierarchical society based on ownership and control.

The Raw Story
Agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago was key to the rise of ancient despots
Simon Powers, University of Lausanne

8 comments:

Matt Franko said...

This excerpt from the Hebrew scriptures looks like is referencing the start of the surplus society:

"Never again will I curse the ground because of humans..." Gen 8:21

This was immediately post flood and agriculture then flourished yada yada...

No pre-flood references in the Hebrew scriptures to despotism per se, but what is there does not sound too swell... sounds primitive and with the ground not easily yielding, a lot of REALLY hard work to get by so probably people were compelled to work together...

Then this changed over to a ground that would be of higher yield after the flood and hence we could experience a surplus society post flood.... but this surplus society also comes with a new set of economic challenges for mankind (obviously)...

rsp,

Anonymous said...

I think probably a better way of looking at it is that power and hierarchy were always important in human society, but that until human beings created forms of wealth that could be controlled and accumulated over long periods of time, the waelth/power gaps between individuals couldn't grow.

Matt Franko said...

This being the part where it first went bad for man (and hence then mankind):

"Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18"Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19By the sweat of your face You will eat bread," Gen 3:18

Doesnt sound too good...

Sounds like more "teamwork" often would have been required...

rsp,

Tom Hickey said...

"Cain and Abel — they're the first human beings that we're told have any kind of jobs. Cain is a farmer and Abel's a shepherd. And it turns out that this long, long narrative from Genesis to Kings, over and over again, presents people either as shepherds or as farmers. And in fact there's a whole history of conflict between them. So, all the greatest heroes in the Bible — Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and many others — they're all shepherds. And it's not just that they happen to be shepherds, because the Bible emphasizes the time they spent shepherding and what they learned from it. And this is kind of like a code — I mean, not a secret code, but it's a metaphor — the shepherd stands for people who live outside of society, on the hills. They make law for themselves, they seek God for themselves, and they're autonomous. It's almost an anarchical message.

"The farmer represents the great urban agrarian societies on the huge rivers in Egypt, Babylonia, Syria, Persia. And the farming societies are what we would recognize today as kind of a totalitarian society, meaning that the king made the decisions, he spoke for the gods, he paid the priests. And these were societies, of course, that had virtues, but the virtues of farming society, of these great empires, were virtues like piety, submissiveness, obedience, honoring the government, honoring your father and your mother, keeping the system going. The shepherds were people who lived beyond society. And the funny thing is that the Hebrew Bible is one very complicated, sophisticated document which holds up the shepherds as being the heroes."


An Individualist Approach To The Hebrew Bible by NPR STAFF

Review of Yoram Hazony,'s The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

Clint Ballinger said...

Sort of related http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Mesopotamia-Dawn-Civilization-Evolution/dp/0226013774

"In Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization, Guillermo Algaze draws on the work of modern economic geographers to explore how the unique river-based ecology and geography of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvium affected the development of urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia. He argues that these natural conditions granted southern polities significant competitive advantages over their landlocked rivals elsewhere in Southwest Asia, most importantly the ability to easily transport commodities. In due course, this resulted in increased trade and economic activity and higher population densities in the south than were possible elsewhere. As southern polities grew in scale and complexity throughout the fourth millennium, revolutionary new forms of labor organization and record keeping were created, and it is these socially created innovations, Algaze argues, that ultimately account for why fully developed city-states emerged earlier in southern Mesopotamia than elsewhere in Southwest Asia or the world."

Tom Hickey said...

"unique river-based ecology and geography of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvium affected the development of urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia" = "fertile crescent."

Geographical and anthropological economics emphasize the role that rivers have played in economic history. They were the early highways of war, trade, and commerce, in addition to providing water for agriculture and eventually cities. Regions that were blest with rivers and harbors — rivers were worshiped as divine or of divine origin — were early centers of development.

This also created the need and opportunity for technology and specialists. Often the temple was the source of the specialists and the warriors the source of the palace. This was the beginning of the four class structure of Sarkarand Batra, the intelligentsia, the warriors, the acquisitors that profited from trade and commerce, and the laborers.

Matt Franko said...

right so you see the people from the line of Cain (associated with production of feedstocks) as the "authority" people and also associated with more organized/institutionally based societies....

rsp,

Matt Franko said...

PS and Paul never mentions "sheep" or "shepherds" or any of that type of stuff....

But he does say in his letter to the Romans:

"6 I plant, Apollos irrigates, but God makes it grow up.
7 So that, neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is irrigating, but God Who makes it grow up.
8 Now he who is planting and he who is irrigating are for one thing. Yet each will be getting his own wages according to his own toil.
9 For God's fellow workers are we. God's farm, God's building, are you."

Know your audience.... rsp,