Politics Race and Religion

Politics, Race, and Religion Teotihuacán, Mexico Origin of Cities and States  Around 6,000 B.C. is the first evidence of a great transformation in the quality and scale of human life.     differences in status among households differences in size of communities craft specialization extended political authority  Around 3,500 B.C., most of the conventional characteristics of civilization arose:       writing cities full-time craft specialization monumental architecture differences in wealth and status strong, hierarchical, centralized political system (state) First Civilizations      Near East 3,500 B.C. NW India 2,500 B.C. Northern China 1,750 B.C. Mexico/Peru 300 B.C. Africa 800 A.D.  This chapter covers:    Why did civilizations evolve? What conditions favored establishment of states? What conditions favored establishment of cities? Archaeological Inferences  How do we know that people had social classes, cities, or centralized government?          burial remains can indicate social inequality differences in house size and furnishings hierarchical decision making most people not directly involved in food production full-time religious or craft specialists public buildings official art style hierarchical social structure with an elite government claims monopoly on force Archaeological Inferences  State: Centralized political hierarchy with at least three levels of administration. A state is a society with a formal, central government, and a division of society into classes. A state controls specific regional territory. How can we tell whether a society was a state or not?    differing size of settlements evidence of trade First States - Southern Iraq  Sumer, near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq, is the location of some of the earliest cities and states.   By 6,000 B.C., a herding-farming economy developed. From 5,000 to 3,500 B.C., many changes took place that played a part in later creating cities and states in this area. small-scale irrigation  increasingly complex social and political life (burial, special goods, temples, chiefdoms)  By 3,500 B.C., there were quite a few cities at Sumer.  Documents indicate numerous social classes.  Sumerians had an elaborate (and one of the first) writing systems - cuneiform, or wedgeshaped writing shown at right.  First States - Mesoamerica    Mesoamerica = Mexico and Central America later emergence of agriculture = later emergence of states Teotihuacán is one of the earliest states in Mesoamerica.      Located in NE part of Valley of Mexico Around 1,000 to 300 B.C., characterized by small, scattered farming villages. Between 300 B.C. and 200 B.C., elite centers emerged. Within 600 years, population went from about 3,000 people to 100,000 people. City layout indicates enormous planning. Probably began as a neutral place for political units to meet.  Monte Albán - 500 B.C. in Valley of Oaxaca  States in the Valley of Mexico Major sites in the emergence of food production and the state in Mesoamerica. First States - Other Areas Other state societies rose more or less independently, meaning they emerged without colonization or conquest by other states.  Egypt - 3,100 B.C.  Ethiopia (Axum) - 1,000 A.D.  Western Africa (Ghana) - 800 A.D.  India (Harappan) - 2,300 B.C.  China (Shang and Xia) - 1,750 B.C. and 2,200 B.C.  Peru (Moche and Nazca) - 200 B.C.  North America (Cahokia) - 1,000 A.D.  Early States Map showing the four great early river valley states of the Old World. Origin of States - Theories  Irrigation  labor and management lead to unequal access to productive land border disputes lead to need for defense    Population Growth, Circumscription, and War   population growth leads to warfare and competition social circumscription prevents migration  Local and Long-Distance Trade  organizational and defense requirements Consequences of State Formation  Positives:     larger and denser population allowances people freed to become craftspeople, merchants, artists art, music, and literature flourish organized religion develops people can’t refuse government (oppression and force) class stratification health issues worsen malnutrition or starvation from lack of access to resources state warfare and conquest  Negatives (à la Jared Diamond):      Decline and Collapse of States  Environmental Degradation   natural causes (e.g., drought) behavior of humans    depletion of natural resources change in soil content increase in incidence of disease (e.g., yellow fever)   overextension of state conflict - internal or external Equality and Inequality Equality before law is the ideal, not the reality.  Inequality is present more in socially stratified societies, when people have unequal access to economic or natural resources, power, and prestige.   Three types of societies in terms of which social groups have unequal access to advantages: egalitarian, rank, and class societies. Egalitarian Societies Egalitarian societies are those in which access to resources, power, and prestige is more or less equal among social groups. Does not mean that all people in the society were treated the same way.  Egalitarianism characterized most of human history.  Found among foragers and horticulturists  Prestige and high positions are not inheritable; keeps inequality to a minimum.  Economic resources are shared (food), and even tools and weapons are passed from person to person.  Rank Societies Rank societies do not have very unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups with unequal access to prestige. Rank societies are partly stratified.  Most societies with ranking practice agriculture or herding.  The position of chief is at least partly hereditary.  Class Societies Class societies have unequal access to all three advantages-economic resources, power, and prestige.  Class is a category of people who all have about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and prestige.  Kinds of class systems:     open - U.S. caste - India, Japan slavery - formerly in U.S., Egypt, Greece, Africa, etc. Race and Ethnicity Race is a social category, and racism is born out of extreme ethnocentrism.  Cultural anthropologists completely reject the idea of race, while some physical anthropologists, especially forensic anthropologists, hold on to some distinguishing biological characteristics (but omit any judgment based on them).  AAA race statement  Political Life Political life involves even more than government and politics. It also involves ways of preventing or resolving troubles and disputes both within and outside the society.  Formal governments have become pervasive in the last 100 years all over the world.  Particularly focused on activities and beliefs pertaining to territorial groups.   Variation in types:  Service - band, tribe, chiefdom, state Band Organization A band is a small (< 100 people) and usually nomadic group of people, which is politically autonomous.  Mostly subsist by food collecting  Egalitarian in nature  Little or no political organization   informal leadership Tribe Organization A tribe results when local communities mostly act autonomously but when there are kinship groups that can potentially integrate several local groups into a larger unit.  Subsistence pattern is that of agriculture and/or herding.  Small community size, low population density  Egalitarian in nature  Little or no political organization   informal leadership Chiefdom Organization A chiefdom has some formal structure that integrates more than one community into a political unit.  Most commonly, there is a person--a chief--who has a higher rank or authority than others.  Subsistence pattern is intensive agriculture and/or herding  Large communities with medium population density  Usually rank societies  Some political organization  State Organization A state is an autonomous political unit, encompassing many communities within its territory and having a centralized government with the power to collect taxes, draft men for work or war, and decree and enforce laws.  Usually have intensive agriculture and herding  Population is concentrated in cities and towns  Can have a class or caste society  High degree of political organization  Religion - Definitions Religion can be defined as any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.  What is considered the supernatural varies from one society to the next.  Many societies don’t have a separate word for religion--it is so integrated into politics, or cultural identity, as with the ancient Greeks.  Universality of Religion Religious beliefs and practices are found in all known societies.  Oldest signs of religion date to at least 60,000 years BP, when people buried their dead and gave offerings to the deceased.   Neandertal evidence could put this invention earlier. Herodotus, 5th century B.C., compared 50 societies  Anthropologists are not interested in what specifically is believed in a culture, but why religion is found in all societies and how and why it varies from society to society.  Theories of Religion  There are four main theories of why religion is created in society:     Need to understand (Tylor) Reversion to childhood feelings (Freud) Anxiety and uncertainty (Malinowski) Need for community (Durkheim) Variation in Religious Beliefs  Types of supernatural beings   supernatural forces (mana, taboo) supernatural beings (gods, spirits, ghosts, ancestor spirits) projection of parent-child relationship (all-knowing)  Character of supernatural beings   Structure or hierarchy of supernatural beings  monotheistic, polytheistic Intervention of the gods in human affairs  Life after death  Variation in Religious Practices  Ways to interact with the supernatural      prayer doing things to the body or mind simulation feasts sacrifices witchcraft and sorcery shaman sorcerers and witches mediums priests  Magic   Types of practitioner     Religion and Adaptation Malinowski - Religions are adaptive because they reduce anxieties and uncertainties that afflict all people.  Harris - Religion can be adaptive in its taboos and rules.   Hindu sacred cow example  Religious change as revitalization