Social Formations and Cultural Patterns of the Ancient World

Paper Code:

24CHIS 112

Credits:

Contact Hours:

90.00

Max. Marks:

100.00

Objective:

Course Objective:- The course aims to introduce students to significant developments in world history that have shaped the complexity of human existence. To begin with, it offers a historical survey of human evolution. The transition from the hunting-gathering subsistence pattern to a more advanced adaptation to a sedentary farming economy. The course content is based on the premise that the pace and nature of change differed in different parts of the world. Further, changes in social formations that facilitated the emergence of socially stratified and state-ordered societies are explained through a study of some of the early Bronze Age Civilizations. The impact of specific ecological conditions on different trajectories of growth, higher population density and social complexity, the emergence of the city and newer crafts, trade and the unfolding of cultural patterns in the early civilizations are concerns that are central to this course. Understanding the dissimilar but interlinked history of humanity is therefore the prime objective of this Course.

Course Outcomes:

Course Outcomes (CO)

Course

Learning outcomes (at course level)

Learning and teaching strategies

Assessment Strategies

Course Code

Course Title

24CHIS112

Social Formations and Cultural Patterns of the Ancient World

CO7- Trace long term changes in the relationship of humans to their landscapes, resources and social groups.

CO8-Critically evaluate that human history is the consequence of choices made in ecological and biological contexts.

CO9- Delineate the significance of early food production and social complexity.

CO10- Analyse the process of state formation, urbanism and social complexity in the early Bronze Age Civilizations

CO11- Determine Nomadic pastoralism, economy and the advent of Iron

CO12-Contribute effectively in course-specific interaction

Approach in teaching

Lecture, Power point presentations, Classroom discussions

Interactive sessions,

various online resources, PowerPoint presentations

case studies

Class test, Semester end examinations, Quiz, Solving problems in tutorials, Assignments, Presentation, Individual and group projects

Online Quiz

18.00

Unit I:

Evolution of humankind and Paleolithic cultures

[a] Biological evolution of Hominins

[b] Social and cultural adaptations: mobility and migration; development of lithic and other technologies; changes in the hunting gathering economy; social organization; art and graves

18.00

Unit II:

Understanding the Mesolithic

[a]Mesolithic as a stage in pre-history

[b] Environmental change and changes in subsistence strategies, food storage, tools,semi-sedentism and features of social complexity

18.00

Unit III:

The Neolithic

[a] Origins of food production--- climate change; population pressure; Ecological choices;

cognitive reorientations

[b] beginnings of agriculture and animal husbandry.

[c] Features of social complexity in late Neolithic communities; ceremonial sites and structures

18.00

Unit IV:

The Bronze Age

[a] Concepts: 'Bronze Age', 'Urban Revolution', 'Civilization' and ‘State’

[b] Ecological context of early civilizations

[c] Aspects of social complexity:class, gender and economic specialization

[d] Forms of kingship, religion and state

{b, c and d are to be based on one case study: Ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerian and Akkadian period/ Egypt, Old kingdom/China Shang dynasty)

18.00

Unit V:

Nomadic pastoralism

[a] Conceptualizing nomadic pastoralism

[b] The emergence of specialised pastoral economy in West Asia and its relationship to sedentary farming (Third and Second millennium BCE)

[c]Socio-political interactionsbetween nomadic pastoralists and urban-state societies in West Asia (Third and Second millennium BCE)

The advent of iron -- its origins and implications

Essential Readings:

ESSENTIAL READINGS

Bogucki, P. The Origins of Human Society. Massachusets and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,1999
Chang, K.C. The Archeology of Ancient China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977
Childe, G. “The Urban Revolution.” The Town Planning Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 (April 1950).
Fagan, B.M. and N. Durrani. The People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Pre-history. 16th
Farooqui, A. Early Social Formations. Delhi: Manak Publications, 2001.
reprint, New York: Routledge, 2016.
Flannery, K.V. “Origins of Food Production.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 2 (1973)
Feng, Li. Early China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
James, T.G.H. The British Museum’s Concise Introduction to Ancient Egypt (British Museum
Publications, 1979). Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2005
Keightly, D.N. “The Shang. China’s First Historical Dynasty.” In The Cambridge History of
Ancient China. From the origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., edited by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Lerner, G. The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press,1986.
Nissen, H.J. The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988. edition. Massachusets, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell, 2003.
Price, T.D., ed. Europe’s First Farmers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2000.
Redman, C.L. The Rise of Civilisations. From Early Farmers to Urban Society in the Ancient Near East. San Fransisco: W.H. Freeeman 1978.
Sherratt, A. “Sedentary Agricultural and nomadic pastoral populations.” Chapter in History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C. vol. II, edited by S. J. de Laeted, 37-43, Paris, London: Routledge, 1996.
Starr, H. “Subsistence Models and metaphors for the Transition to Agriculture.”M Publishing,University of Michigan Library 2005,url: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0522508.0015.103.
Szuchman J., ed. Nomads Tribes and the State in the Ancient Near East. Cross Disciplinary Perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Chapters 7-14.
Trigger, B.G., B.J. Kemp, D. O’Connor and A.B. Lloyd. Ancient Egypt A Social History.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Villard, P. “The Beginning of the Iron Age: Invention of ironwork and its consequences.” In History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C., vol. II, edited by J. de Laet, 196- 204. Paris, London: Routledge, 1996.
Wenke, R.J. and D.I. Olszewski. Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind’s first three million years.5th
Whitehouse, R. The First Civilizations. Oxford: Phaidon, 1977.edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

References:

SUGGESTED READINGS

Adams, R. McC.The Evolution of Urban Society, Early Mesopotamia and pre-Hispanic Mexico.Chicago: Aldine, 1966.
Hodder, I.R., ed. Religion in the Emergence of Civilisation, Catalhoyuk as a Case Study. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Hodder, I.R. Studies in Human-Thing Entanglement. Stanford. 2016. Available
at: http://www.ian-hodder.com/books/studies-human-thing-entanglement, esp. chap.4.
Khazanov, A.M. Nomads and the Outside World, translated by Julia Crookman. Cambridge: Taylor and Francis,1984.
“Adopting Agriculture in Order to Hunt Better: An Example of Entrapment and Path Dependency,” pp. 44-63 and chapter 7, “Beyond Entanglement: The Role of Religion,” pp. 93-104
Lloyd, A.B., ed. A Companion to Ancient Egypt. Oxford and Massachusetts: Wiley Blackwell, 2010.
Price T.D. and J. A. Brown, ed. Pre-Historic Hunter-Gatherers The Origins Of Cultural Complexity. Orlando Florida and London: Academic Press. 1985.
Sherratt, A. “Plough and Pastoralism: Aspects of the Secondary Products Revolution,” in Ian Hodder, Glynn Isaac, and Norman Hammonded. Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of David Clarke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1981.
Zvelibil M., ed. Hunters in Transition, Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Eurasia and their transition to farming. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.