ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Karl August Wittfogel, Social Stratification, Written Language
20 Mar 2017
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Neolithic village to 1st urban centers - cultural change: Civilization: larger social order of states related by language, traditions, history, economics, and other shared cultural aspects. Centralized political organization: burial customs, size of dwellings, written documents, correspondence. What defines a civilization: cities: urban centers, social stratification, states: centralized authority. Theories of civilizations emergence: environmental, hydraulic theory (karl wittfogel, trade networks, cultural. Government -complex political organization: )rrigation systems, social stratification due to competition for scarce resources, control of increasing production required decision making institutions, religion (mesoamerica, divination (cid:523)china(cid:524, information theory (trigger, control of communication, action (marcus & flannery) 1. mesopotamia: egypt, indus valley, china, mesoamerica & peru. Southwest asia (greater mesopotamia: (cid:888)(cid:887)(cid:882)(cid:882) ya ubaid villagers, (cid:888)(cid:882)(cid:882)(cid:882) 4000 ya initial cultural complexity, evidence pottery styles. Non-residential building: (cid:887)(cid:887)(cid:882)(cid:882) ya rural villagers migrated to growing towns. Why: reinforce social & political hierarchies, prevent high & unstable rates of population growth, distribution of wealth.
