GGR101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Karl August Wittfogel, Robert L. Carneiro, Social Evolution
20 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Old world civilizations and their changing environment: from prehistory to the classical age. From bands to states: critical differences between different levels of social organization and complexity. Close contact and personal relationships, to impersonal relationships. Requires a means of supporting a large population numbers agriculture. Increasing inequality between members: what are the main features of states. Progression from low to high complexity in hierarchal ordering. Different degrees of complexity as adaptation: theories behind the rise of old world states. Marxist theories of early states pre-capitalist. Back to early social and political theorists like hobbes, machiavelli. Also proposed the idea of the neolithic revolution . Emerge relatively untouched by outside influences they are independent phenomena. All of them based on agriculture and surplus. Dry farming vs. irrigation: dry farming, irrigation farming. Planting and farming within zones of adequate rain fall. Divert water courses to supply large areas of water. Proposed theories: early marxist theories, hydraulic hypothesis.
