ANT200Y1 Lecture 5: lecture 5 - ant 200
11 Dec 2011
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Typically associated with chiefdoms and states(as opposed to bands and tribes) Chiefdoms larger than bands and tribes (5000 20000+ people) Kin based ranking under hereditary leader economy based on tribute/redistribution. Archaelogical example: all ancient civilizations e. g mesopotamia (3200 bc) and nile valley ca 3000bc also indus valley ca. For v. gordon childe (1952), states were: centralized authorities with the power to tax surplus productioin derived from intensive use of the land and increased productivity his definition of statehood is stinged due to his being a marxist. Most early writing involves combinations of: pictographs, logographs/ideographs. One to one correspondance between depiction and what it depicts. Subject to interpretation of "meaning", limited to meaning. One written symbol for each item (morpheme) in vocabulary. Characters stand for meaning, not sounds eg chinese characters evolution. Syllabic written symbol for each syllable examples: cuneiform (mesopotamia) and hieroglyphics (egypt) use a combination of logographic and syllabics. Alphabetic written symbol for each vowel and consonant.
