Gordon V. Childe: Urban Revolution Lewis Mumford: City in History

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Presentation transcript:

Gordon V. Childe: Urban Revolution Lewis Mumford: City in History Origin of the City Gordon V. Childe: Urban Revolution  Lewis Mumford: City in History

The modern city is the ‘product’ of a complex historical process. The origin of cities are shrouded in the distant past. According some sources it could be as long back as 10000 years.

Periods Paleolithic 35,000-10,000 Mesolithic 7,000-4000 Neolithic 4000-1500 (Near East-6000-3500) Chalcolithic Age—copper Megalithic Age Iron Age-Painted Grey Ware Culture

Lewis Mumford’s theory of ‘Thanatopolis’ The conditions of the origin of the city have been discussed by different theorists. According to Lewis Mumford the first cities that came up are not the city of the living but of the dead. It was the thanatopolis. Among the hunter gathering Palaelithic people it is the dead who had a permanent dwelling not the living and men and women would return to these ritual spaces to worship their ancestors.

What were the conditions that had led to the rise of the urban?

Advances in agriculture The evolution of the Neolithic village into a city took at least 1500 years (from 5000 to 3500 BC). The technological developments that made it possible for humankind to live in urban places were at first mainly advances in agriculture.

surplus Neolithic era domestication of plants and animals eventually led to improved methods of cultivation and stock breeding. Eventually producing a surplus and made it possible to sustain a higher population density

production of non-essential goods and services Surplus also made a section of the population free for craftsmanship and the production of non-essential goods and services.

Necessity for circulation of goods As human settlements increased in size through advances in irrigation and cultivation and the need for improving the circulation of goods and people became ever more acute.

domestication of animals In this situation domestication of animals had an important role. The Neolithic people domesticated animals and used them for transportation as well as for food and hides. It made them travel greater distances and when attached with sledge like equipments they helped them to carry heavier loads.

Invention of the wheel   The most spectacular technological advancement in the early history of transportation was the invention of the wheel which was used first in the Tigris-Euphrates valley and 3500 BC.

Roads The Romans were famous for their road building technology. The roads were mainly for military purposes. They were a part of Rome’s military might. Travel was a specialized affair where only the merchants and soldiers are the only people who traveled. Roads helped urbanization.

Characteristics of the ancient cities First and foremost, the population of ancient cities were mostly very small by modern standards. Babylon, one of the largest ancient cities of the Middle East probably had a population of 20,000 at its height. Rome under Emperor Augustus was the largest ancient city outside China, had some 300,000 inhabitants.

They were centres of art, science and cosmopolitan culture. However, the influence of the city on the rural areas was minimal. But how did they come about? We will look at two theories:

Theories of origin Gordon V. Childe: Urban Revolution   Lewis Mumford: Urban Implosion

V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957) An Australian archeologist who is credited with coining the term ‘urban revolution’. The term ‘urban revolution’ refers to the processes by which agricultural village societies developed into socially, economically and politically complex urban societies. Childe identified ten formal criteria that according to his system indicate the development of urban civilization:

increased settlement size concentration of wealth class-stratified society large-scale public works writing representational art knowledge and science of engineering foreign trade full-time specialists in non-subsistence activities political organization based on residence (territory) rather than kinship  

So Childe primary saw the underlying causes of the urban revolution as the cumulative growth of technology and the increasing availability of food surpluses and capital. Food surplus is the necessary but not sufficient pre-condition for the urban revolution.   Although it was later shown that Child’s exact criteria were not universal but some basic characteristics do appear to be essential to the development of urban life. Exchange and redistribution of goods between specialized and interdependent zones and differential control over productive resources such as land and livestock.

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) Mumford points out that for the Neolithic human beings village and home were the creations of the women. Nurture, protection, fecundity were the main tasks that had to be performed.

  Wherever containers were found we could assume that there was surplus. One of the first feats performed by early engineers was a hole dug in the ground and sun- dried to brick hardness in Mesopotemia.

heterogeneity The city came as a definite emergent in the Neolithic community (The New Stone Age 9000-3000 BC). It required no mere increase in numbers. It is heterogeneity that led to the formation of the city—the miner, the woodman, the fisherman, each bringing with him the tools and skills and habits of life formed under other pressures. The engineer, the boatman, the sailor and other occupational groups the soldier, the banker, the merchant, the priest. Out is this complexity the city created a higher unity. It is not that kinship and family connections did not matter but vocational ability. So the question is what skill have you brought and not what tribe/caste do you belong to.

Communication The city effected a mobilization of man-power, a command over long distance transportation, an intensification of communication over long distances in space transportation, an intensification along with a large scale development of civil engineering, and not least it promoted a tremendous further rise in agricultural productivity. Development in science and technology and increased demand led to this rise.

Receptacle of civilization From its origin onward the city may be described as a structure specially equipped to store and transmit the goods of civilization, sufficiently condensed to afford the maximum amount of facilities in a minimum space, but also capable of structural enlargement to enable it to find a place for the changing needs and the more complex forms of a growing society and its cumulative social heritage. The invention of such forms as the written record, the library, the archive, the school and the university are the earliest and most characteristic achievements of the city.

Contrary to rejecting what was already there the ‘urban revolution’ actually brought the earlier elements of the existing culture and increased their efficacy and scope. The emergence of non-agricultural occupations, heightened the demand for food and probably caused villages to multiply, and still more land to be brought under cultivation. Revolution does not mean discarding what was there earlier.

Mumford uses the term ‘implosion’ to describe this process Mumford uses the term ‘implosion’ to describe this process. According to Mumford the many diverse elements of the community hitherto scattered were mobilized and packed together under pressure, behind the massive walls of the city. The process of urbanization had further impact on villages. More urban centres meant that more population who is not producing food. The city was not revolution but built on something that was already present.

Role of political institution of kingship According to Mumford it was the institution of Kingship that was at the centre of the urban implosion. He cites archeological evidence from Egypt and Mesopotamia that it was the king who stood at the centre of the urban implosion bringing under the control of the palace and temple all the new forces of the civilization. The earliest cities always had a citadel which signified a political centre.

Certain common features of the ancient cities were: walls: primarily for military defense but also to emphasize the separation of the urban community from the countryside. They contained a market but it was not in the city centre like modern cities. The main buildings were nearly always religious or political such as temples, palaces or courts. The dwellings of the ruling class or elite tended to be concentrated in or near the centre while the less privileged lived near the edges. places of work and residence were the same.