Yoffee - Myths of the Archaic State ~ Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States and Civilizations.pdf - Książki historyczne - xxx.apx.xxx

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Myths of the Archaic State

In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee challenges prevailing myths underpin-

ning our understanding of the evolution of the earliest cities, states, and civilizations.

He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship that the earliest states were large

and despotically controlled and their evolution can be adequately modeled by ethno-

graphic analogies. By illuminating the creation and changes in social roles – not simply

of male leaders but also of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and

prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen – Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centered

on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia as

well as from Egypt, South Asia, China, Mesoamerica, and South America, the author

explores the changes in human societies that created the world we live in. This book

offers a bold new interpretation of social evolutionary theory, and as such it is essential

reading for any student or scholar with an interest in the emergence of complex society.

NORMAN YOFFEE is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at the

University of Michigan. His various publications include Archaeological Theory: Who

Sets the Agenda? (co-editor with Andrew Sherratt, Cambridge University Press, 1993)

and The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations (co-editor with George L. Cowgill,

University of Arizona Press, 1988). He is editor of the Journal of the Economic and Social

HistoryoftheOrient and Cambridge World Archaeology .

MYTHS OF THE

ARCHAIC STATE

Evolution of the Earliest Cities,

States, and Civilizations

NORMAN YOFFEE

Yoffee - Myths of the Archaic State ~ Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States and Civilizations.pdf