GGR100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Karl August Wittfogel, Robert L. Carneiro, Social Evolution
Document Summary
Critical differences between different levels of social organization and complexity. What are the main features of states. Theories behind the rise of old world states. Bands are small groups of people: often related by blood, family members, don"t get larger than about 100 people. Social roles, responsibilities, status and class become more important. Requires a means of supporting large population numbers agriculture. Before you had the acquired and achieved status. Now have people with ascribed status without effort or work for it. Unilineal social evolution: progression from low to high complexity in hierarchical ordering. Not necessarily a progression, but an immediate reaction to their local context. Back to early social and political theorists like hobbes, machiavelli. Also proposed the idea of the neolithic revoltuion . The 10 features of the urban revolution (high civilizations) Exact and predictive sciences (e. g. arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, calendars)
