Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION
(From John Pohl's MESOAMERICA)
The principal factors that contributed to the origins of Mesoamerica’s civilizations are debated by scholars working throughout the region today but most believe that the inequalities between rulers and ruled, a condition of all early civilizations, developed with the consolidation of social power by chiefs who coordinated agricultural labor and supervised the storage and redistribution of crop surpluses that ensured group survival against drought and other natural calamaties.
Between 15,000 and 5,000 B.C., human populations subsisted largely as migratory hunters and foragers until the domestication of plants, especially maize, beans, and squash, provided them with surpluses that enabled year-round settlements to thrive.
Anthropologists tend to think of early tribes as egalitarian societies who restricted the accumulation of personal wealth by continually circulating food and materials through reciprocal exchange networks. But while food-sharing and gift-giving may have promoted trust and bound tribal members together, the ability to generate surpluses with plant cultivation would have created status differences. Ambitious individuals could begin capitalizing on a basic primate condition, the most successful long term leaders are not necessarily the strongest, but the most generous.
Once foods had been domesticated as staples, they would have been available to any population interested in shifting from foraging to agriculture and sedentary life. Agriculture can support large populations but it demands ever more intensive forms of cultivation. Mesoamerican people met the challenge by developing a wide variety of agricultural techniques, from terracing mountain sides to digging canals or even creating artificial wetlands. Mesoamericans domesticated dogs and turkeys, but wild animals like deer were naturally drawn to gardens where they could be easily captured and tethered. The cultivation of fruit trees attracted a wide variety of tropical birds whose colorful plumage was coveted for displaying wealth and prestige.