Cultural Causality and Law: A Trial Formulation of the Development of Early Civilizations

Abstract

T IS about three-quarters of a century since the early anthropologists and I sociologists attempted to formulate cultural regularities in generalized or scientific terms. The specific evolutionary formulations of such writers as Morgan' and Tylor2 and the functional or sociological formulations of Durkheim and others were largely repudiated by the 20th century anthropologists, especially by those of the so-called "Boas" school, whose field wQrk tested and cast doubt on their validity. Today, despite an enormous and ever-increasing stock-pile of cultural data, little effort has been made to devise new formulations or even to develop a methodology for doing so, except as White and Childe have kept alive the tradition of Morgan, as Radcliffe-Brown and Redfield have continued in the spirit of Durkheim, and as Malinowski has attempted to reconcile diverse schools of anthropology through a "scientific theory of culture."Reaction to evolutionism and scientific functionalism has very nearly amounted to a denial that regularities exist; that is, to a claim that history never repeats itself. While it is theoretically admitted that cause and effect operate in cultural phenomena, it is considered somewhat rash to mention causality, let alone "law," in specific cases. Attention is centered on cultural differences, particulars, and peculiarities, and culture is often treated as if it developed quixotically, without determinable causes, or else appeared fullblown.I t is unfortunate that the two approaches are so widely thought of as theoretically irreconcilable rather than as expressions of different purposes or interests. The 19th century writers had the perfectly legitimate purpose of making scientific generalizations from what they considered recurrent cultural patterns, sequences, and processes in different cultures, while the more recent school has the equally legitimate purpose of examining the distinctive or nonrecurrent features of cultures. As all cultures, though unique in many respects, Morgan, 1877.9 Tylor, 1865,1871.

The Population Ecology of Despotism

“…The Nile Valley was underpopulated through the predynastic and early periods of state formation, mooting the possibility that political centralization was a direct organizational response to population pressure and declining marginal yields of agriculture. Egypt's irrigation technology was small in scale and locally managed, challenging theories by Steward (1949) and Wittfogel (1957) that the state arose through the advantages of large-scale water management. Fostered by warfare and maintained through class-based exploitation, the coalescence of the Egyptian state cannot be reconciled with ecosystemic theories entailing economic benefits that states might provide their subject populations.…”

Natur und Gesellschaft

“…121 Er ist ein Ventilbegriff, ein Begriff des globalen Umweltschutzes der neuesten Generation, der sich, anstelle eines emotionalen Vokabulars, der Sprache der politischen Beratung, der Sprache und der Personen des wissenschaftlichen Lebens bedient. 117 Grundzüge kultureller Entwicklungen -und damit auch die Organisation von Arbeit -verliefen weltweit überraschend ähnlich (Steward 1949) und wären leichter zu diagnostizieren als jene qualitative Abstufungen, die das "Anthropozän" begründen bzw. abgrenzen müssten.…”

Mexican water studies in the Mexico-US borderlands

“…2 Wittfogel's concept of "oriental despotism" has largely been rejected as a result of sustained and profound criticism, but has nevertheless had an enduring impact on anthropology and history in the United States and in Mexico. Julian Steward's 1955 edited volume on Irrigation Civilization, which included chapters by Karl Wittfogel and Mexican anthropologist Angel Palerm, is often seen as a reflection of this impact in its founding moment (Steward 1955). However, as the presence of Palerm and others in that volume indicates, Wittfogel was only one among many influences that shaped the history of research on water and power in Mexico and the U.S.…”

“…In 1953 he organized a symposium on the topic of Irrigation Civilizations, which led to the publication of Irrigation Civilizations. Palerm published a series of articles in the 1950s on this topic (Palerm 1952;1954;1955), and established dialogues with Wittfogel, Steward and Steward's students, Eric Wolf and Sidney Mintz. Wolf and Palerm began their lifelong friendship and intellectual collaboration with publications on irrigation in the Texcoco area of the Valley of Mexico (Palerm and Wolf 1954;1957).…”