Political Economy in Early Mesopotamian States

Yoffee, Norman

doi:10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.001433

Cited by 121 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The slight is especially noticeable when contrasted with the degree of attention focused on agrarian and craft production (Costin, 1991(Costin, , 2001Denevan, 2001;Sinopoli, 2003;Trigger, 2003, pp. 358-373;Whitmore and Turner, 2001), households and domestic consumption (DÕAltroy and Hastorf, 2001;Feinman and Nicholas, 2000;Santley and Hirth, 1993), and mechanisms of elite finance (Earle, 2001(Earle, , 2002Feinman and Nicholas, 2004;Yoffee, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring regional market systems in prehistory: Models, methods, and metrics

Minc

2006

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring regional market systems in prehistory: Models, methods, and metrics

Minc

2006

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Mesopotamia is the standard starting point for studies about the history of civilizations – though not always for the right kind of reasons. Since the first excavations took place there in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was widely recognized that the first large cities, and then states, emerged there (Wengrow ; Yoffee ). However, such concerns were much dominated with Enlightenment rationalism, Napoleonic conquests, colonialism and the Hegelian elevation of the Prussian state into a model, culminating in the idea that human civilization is identical to state formation, bureaucracy and writing, rooted in the ‘Westphalian framing’ (Salvatore ), and the technological transformation and exploitation of nature.…”

Section: Early Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Processes of social flourishing and their liminal collapse: elements to a genealogy of globalization

Szakolczai

2016

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article aims at exploring a long-term historical perspective on which contemporary globalization can be more meaningfully situated. A central problem with established approaches to globalization is that they are even more presentist than the literature on modernization was. Presentism not only means the ignoring of history, but also the unreflective application to history of concepts taken from the study of the modern world. In contrast, it is argued that contemporary globalization is not a unique development, but rather is a concrete case of a historical type. Taking as its point of departure the spirit, rather than the word, of Max Weber, this article extends the scope of sociological investigation into archaeological evidence. Having a genealogical design and introducing the concept of 'liminality', the article approaches the modern process of globalization through reconstructing the internal dynamics of another type of historical change called 'social flourishing'. Taking up the Weberian approach continued by Eisenstadt in his writings on 'axial age', it moves away from situations of crisis as reference point, shifting attention to periods of revival by introducing the term 'epiphany'. Through the case of early Mesopotamia, it shows how social flourishing can be transmogrified into globalizing growth, gaining a new perspective concerning the kind of 'animating spirit' that might have driven the shift from Renaissance to Reformation, the rise of modern colonialism, or contemporary globalization. More generally, it will retrieve the long-term historical background of the axial age and demonstrate the usefulness and importance of archaeological evidence for sociology.

show abstract

“…The early city-states of Mesopotamia had developed new means for trade and exchange that demanded new concepts of property and its transmission. This in turn entailed a new economic and legal definition of family and inheritance (Diakonoff 1982;Postgate 2003;Yoffee 1995). These new concepts were selectively adapted to a different and less complex social and economic environment in Anatolia and the Caucasus, as well as the Aegean (Rahmsdorf 2010).…”

Section: The Decline Of Neolithic Economies and The Expansion Of New mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Decline of the Neolithic and the Rise of Bronze Age Society

Kristiansen

2015

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter explores the historical transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age between the fourth and the third millennia BC and highlights some major qualitative or structural differences between the two. It argues that this new social formation restructured the political economy around a new set of institutions, giving rise to more complex societies at a global level. The chapter first examines the historical conditions or forces that led to the decline of the Neolithic and the rise of the Bronze Age in prehistoric Europe by comparing seemingly similar tell societies in both epochs in the Carpathian basin before identifying the new institutions of the Bronze Age, including the regional economic division of labour. As bronze was universally adopted it implied regular long-distance trade in metal, which created a new globalized economy that did not exist during the Neolithic.

show abstract

Political Economy in Early Mesopotamian States

Cited by 121 publications

References 46 publications

Monitoring regional market systems in prehistory: Models, methods, and metrics

Monitoring regional market systems in prehistory: Models, methods, and metrics

Processes of social flourishing and their liminal collapse: elements to a genealogy of globalization

The Decline of the Neolithic and the Rise of Bronze Age Society

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About