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Anthropology 112
Civilizations:
Mesopotamia
Jodi Perin
Review: Power and Authority
 Power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others.
 Authority is the socially approved use of power.
Ranked chiefdoms (e.g. Pacific Islands)
• Intensified agriculture/technology
• Increased specialization (e.g. priests)
• Concentration of power in the hands
of a few
• Emergence of inequality
• A chief or senior leader makes a
decision and a group of subordinates
carries out this decision.
What’s a “civilization”?
Civilizations/empires
Some similarities to chiefdoms,
but also:
 Cities
 Emergence of
writing/calendrical systems
 Monumental architecture
 Code of laws
 Etc.
 “Civilization gives some
households institutionalized
coercive power to
permanently control property
in ways that reduce material
opportunities of other
households”(Bodley p.204-5)
Why civilizations?
 “Civilization is about social
power” (Bodley pg. 204)
 “Rulers took advantage of crisis
situations in order to force people
to accept the elite’s self-interested
solutions” (Bodley pg. 211)
 “Political centralization was not
inevitable, but under some
circumstances aspiring elites
could force the majority to accept
their domineering leadership”
(Bodley pg. 214)
Chapter 7 (part 1): Mesopotamia
Where is Bodley getting his
information?
Environment: the fertile crescent
 Arid desert w/ major
rivers, variable elevation
and land cover
 Fragile and unpredictable
natural environment
• Sea level/climatic changes
 Prone to flooding and
drought
 Earliest known
domestication of
plants/animals
Example: Sumer (Southern Mesopotamia)
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5500 BC - small villages, farming w/out irrigation
5000 BC - climate change and sea level fluctuations bring droughts,
floods
• Refugees
• Creation of larger villages
• Emergence of irrigation and chiefdoms
4000 BC - sea level stabilizes, irrigation becomes more reliable
• Successful chiefs move to consolidate power
• Intensified production of food, other goods
• Intensified warfare
3500 BC - first city-states in place >> beginning of Sumerian civilization
• Centralized economic systems, mass production
• High status wealth objects
• Scribes keep records with cuneiform writing
• Long-distance trade
• Colonization
Ur III (Southern Mesopotamia) 2112 - 2004 BC
 Taxation system (barley, wool, etc.)
 Ranks/social classes
• Small farmers, low-wage
workers, indentured
servants/slaves (> 90%)
• Managers, majors, large landowners, merchants
• Royal officials/top
administrators
• Emperor and extended royal
family
 Elite private dynasties (e.g.
political/religious offices)
 Food - lots of barley! + some fruits,
meat, oil, etc.
 Intensive irrigated agriculture
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia
 Rulers as divine
 Temples (ziggurats)
 Creation myths and
political dynasties
 Hierarchical cosmos
 Human sacrifice
A few questions for discussion . . .
• What have you learned previous to this class about Mesopotamia and
other civilizations, if anything?
• Do you think civilization in the Mesopotamian form was inevitable?
• In your opinion, did the emergence of civilizations constitute progress?
•Would you prefer to live as a hunter gatherer (e.g. like the !Kung) or as a
citizen of a Mesopotamian city-state? (be prepared to explain your answer)
• Later on we will discuss why civilizations like those in Mesopotamia were
inherently unstable and prone to collapse. Why might these kinds of
societies be so unstable, compared to domestic scale societies?