Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations
I. Paleolithic Societies
A. Foraging societies--all paleolithic societies were foraging societies (hunter/gatherer). Since hunting during this era was very much a hit or miss proposition--particularly before the emergence of effective weapons like spears and the bow and arrow, most of the diet of paleolithic people was based on wild fruits, roots, shoots, and grains that could be gathered.
1. Gender--whether one hunted or gathered was very much a factor of one’s gender. Because the day-to-day survival of the band depended upon the food that was gathered, however, gathering food was not a lower status postion. Hunting, as well as gathering food, was dependent upon group cooperation; killing game was dependent upon working as a team, rather than upon the prowess of an individual hunter
2. Cooperation--Paleolithic societies were marked by this cooperation, it was necessary to the continuation of their society. Food was equitably shared among all members of the society--”To each according to need, from each according to ability.”
II. Neolithic Revolution
A. Revolution--or Evolution?
1. Invention of farming--is something of a misnomer. People did not “invent” farming, because they did not make a conscious decision between food production and hunting/gathering. People began simply to adopt (or not adopt) food production for certain foods, while retaining the option to hunt or gather other foods
2. Creating the surplus--farming becomes attractive because domesticated plants prove to be a fairly reliable source of food; so much so, that farmers are actually able to produce more than they need to subsist--and therefore producing a surplus, which they can then trade for other goods.
B. Why farming wins out
1. Changes in climate--in certain areas meant that gathering food enough to survive on became more difficult, and made raising food a more attractive option (the Fertile Crescent, for example, became more arid, and people living there were forced to begin raising food--both grain and animals--in order to remain there).
2. Changes in Technology--the ability to store a harvest (whether from raising food or gathering it) led people to become more sedentary (it is, after all, difficult to transport a granary to support a nomadic lifestyle). Using domesticated animals to iron-tipped plows also made farming more bountiful as well, and freed up labor from plowing to undertake other duties.
3. Sedentary lifestyle--promoted by the rise of farming led to more children being born. Nomadic peoples tended not to have more children at one time than they were able to carry; with farming families remaining in one location, children were born closer in age in many families, which caused the population of farming groups to grow faster than their nomadic cousins.
4. Productivity of farming--even though food producers were often less well-nourished than their nomadic counterparts, the greater populations of sedentary groups meant that they often prevailed in conflicts between the two groups (that later changes as nomads develop horsey skills and become more mobile).
I. The Development of “Civilization”--the term has become somewhat controversial; here we will adopt Harman’s use of the word, meaning urban settlement.

1. Production of the surplus--people were able to live in cities because with Agri-Culture, the production of food beyong the needs of immediate subsistence--surplus food--became the norm. This allowed people to regularly engage in other activities rather than working to ensure their own subsistence. People began to specialize in various artisnal crafts at this point.
II. Control of the surplus--living in urban areas meant living in groups larger than one’s extended kin network (which was the usual bond between people in paleolithic bands). This led to less reliance upon cooperation, and greater emphasis being placed on coercion to control surplus food production.
A. Armed force--professional soldiers were developed along with urban living areas because they could be used to appropriate surplus food supplies, both from within people within their settlement as well as without
B. Accounting for the surplus--with the development of the surplus there also developed a need to account for it--to be able to tell where the surplus went, to whom--and eventually at what cost. The need for this accounting system led to the development of both a system of writing (for record keeping), and the development of mathematics (for the actual accounting).
C. Rulers and priests--with the development of agriculture, it became important to also keep track of the seasons, and to be able to read (or, even better, influence) the portents so that it could be determined the best time to plant. Among many peoples, the development of a priestly class reinforced the emergence of a ruling class, who emerged because they were able to claim the favor of a particular deity.
1. Early sedentary farming communities were established without class divisions on fertile soil, but as the communities expanded to less fertile soil, improvements to the land (irrigation, etc.) were made. Those making the improvements needed to expand agricultural production, and felt justified in controlling access to these improvements and to exercising control over the surplus produced.
2. In this way, in some areas of the world, community leadership grew to expect tribute to be offered to them (usually in goods)
3. As the means of production changed during the neolithic era, the relationship of people to the means of production changed as well. People tended to accept these changes because of the gradual nature in which they took place, and because the abundance of food during peak periods made the increasingly authoritarian nature of rulers more palatable.
III. Egyptian Civilization
A. Pyramids and Monuments--when we think of Egypt today, we still think of it as the land of pyramids and monuments like the Great Sphinx. But for what purpose were those structures built? To impress onlookers (present and future) of the power and longevity of the ruling class in Egypt--although the monuments outlived the rulers.
1. When the great pyramid/monument building binge took place, Egypt was still on the cusp between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages; although workers on the monuments worked with iron and bronze tools, the people supplying the food to access to those kinds of tools.
2. The sheer scale of exploitation of the mass population--an exploitation that grew in direct proportion to the growth in the magnificence of the temples, palaces, tombs, and ruling-class lifestyles. This led to the stagnation of the means of providing a livelihood for the greater part of society. That section of society that had been freed from daily toil in the fields no longer had any interest in furthering humanity’s control over nature.
3. With much of the surplus being spent on monuments to their own greatness, spending on infrastructure suffered; as a result, when crops failed due to famine, flood, climate change, insect infestation (see Moses, Bible), leaders in Egypt saw the surplus vanish, and their civilization crumble; this process has been repeated numerous times in history.
B. Technology and Urban Development--the next “great civilizations” to emerge occurred in areas less fertile than the Nile Valley, and had to promote the development of technology in order to produce a sufficient surplus.
IV. Ancient India
A. Aryan invaders--the Aryan people originated in the Caucus Mountains, and invaded India about 1500 BCE
B. Vedic Religion (evolved into the Hindu religion)
1. Ritual centered on the sacrifice of animals--including cattle--and long sagas extolling the exploits of warrior gods
a) This practice of worshipping warrior gods made the expropriation of food belonging to non-warriors more palatable; bulk of good went to warriors ant their brahmin allies.
C. Iron technology
1. Iron implements--the development of the iron axe and the iron-tipped plow made it possible to clear the jungles along the Ganges River and plow the heavy soil of the Deccan Plain, and to make a nomadic people who relied upon raising cattle for beef to begin to rely upon those cattle to pull plows.
2. From Vedic to Hindu--Vedic practives of eating beef became taboo, because the elites relied upon the production of surplus grain as their main source of wealth; therefore, farming peasants had to be discouraged from eating their cattle at all costs.
3. Indian caste system--Aryans had brought with them an ideology that set up a rigid class structure that justified expropriation of the surplus; in the emerging agricultural society solidified into a four-tiered class system, or varna.
a) Brahmin--the priestly caste
b) kshtriyas--warriors and rulers
c) vaishyas--landowners and merchants
d) shudras--artisans and toilers
Fluidity of system--this caste system remained somewhat fluid, although as more castes were added to the system, it became more rigid.