Social Change ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION AND STATES FOUR STAGES -- Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, States

Social Change Bands – informal leaders; small groups (few dozen people); nomadic; subsistence; egalitarian. Tribes – informal leaders; pastoral/horticultural; autonomous linked villages; mostly egalitarian.

Social Change Chiefdoms – more permanent, inherited leader; controlled and linked villages/towns; hierarchical. Note: no organized legal apparatus, little resistance to challenge

Social Change States – formal leaders (“sociopolitical organization with monopoly of means of violence”) Larger, denser populations based on advanced agriculture and trade; complex economic specialization (division of labor); social class structure based on domination and exploitation (urban vs. rural). Specialized, integrated instis (polity/bureaucracy; religion; family; education, etc.).

Social Change States and Civilizations – Over time, organized states penetrate and reorganize culture/institutions of the society (and expand the society through conquest, etc.). State civilizations eventually entail urbanism and city life, capital accumulation (taxation, tribute, etc.) to support non- agricultural population, long distance trade, public sector (urban-based occupations, buildings, etc.), advanced knowledge/education/communication.

Social Change THE PROCESS OF PARALLEL (& INDEPENDENT) EVOLUTION Very similar States/Civilizations developed in different parts of the world starting about 5000 years ago. (Mesopotamia, Egypt, other parts of Africa, China, Indus Valley, Europe, Mesoamerica, Peru) There were also partial developments elsewhere: N America, S America, Polynesia

Social Change WHY DID THESE CHANGES OCCUR (FIVE BASIC THEORIES)? (Assumes that the state is the driving force behind the fundamental social changes – the state now organizes responses to problems/pressures)

Social Change 1. Trade – both internal (exploitation) and external (competition) aspects of trade require strong stable state. Why? Extracting surplus from peasants (by force) Protecting merchants and seeking trade advantages

Social Change 2.Class conflict – class societies are unstable (exploitation & resistance) and the ruling class must continuously develop the state apparatus and expand their domains to maintain their wealth and power. Elites compete over “shares” of the surplus Exploited people resist exploitation (but disorganized)

Social Change 3. Population pressure – productivity increases population, increased population requires more productivity. Growth presses more growth! Even early urban areas were “growth machines”

Social Change 4. Irrigation agriculture (vs. rainfall) – irrigation agriculture requires large scale administration. Large scale admin requires broader irrigation to increase productivity!

Social Change 5. Circumscription (geographical obstacles to expansion) – population pressure leads to conquest. Conquest, slavery, empire building Also growing need for resources (raw materials)

Social Change Some combination of several or all of these? Trade Conflict Population pressure Irrigation agriculture Geographical circumscription

Social Change CHANGES IN SOCIAL LIFE FROM PRE-NEOLITHIC THROUGH STATES Changes in Institutions and other factors

Social Change Economy – Shift from production for consumption to production for exploitation and trade (and increasing class exploitation).

Social Change Knowledge – religion to increasing secularization (religion to theology to philosophy to nascent science).

Social Change Family – the decline of kinship and then family; the development of citizenship. Social Control – from community control (homogeneity & surveillance) to early formal social control (law)

Social Change Demography – the early demographic transition (high BR/high DR -> high BR/lower DR)

Social Change Geography – transition from natural environment to more artificial environment (both urban and rural).

Social Change Division of Labor – growing complexity (urban and agricultural) Dialectic – Surplus and complexity

Social Change Summary Pre-industrial Pre-capitalist From HGs to Pastoral/Horticultural to larger states to empires Eventually Agrarian states (NEXT)