Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations
Abstract
In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee shatters the prevailing myths underpinning our understanding of the evolution of early civilisations. He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship on the rule of 'godly' and despotic male leaders and challenges the conventional view that early states were uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities. Instead, by illuminating the role of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen, Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centred on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica, the author explores the variety of trajectories followed by ancient states, from birth to collapse, and explores the social processes that shape any account of the human past. 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.
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It is not necessarily the case that social institutions, politics, economy, social organization, and belief systems were linked or changed at the same time, at the same pace, and in the same direction.
“As Yoffee (2005, p. 22) has argued, it is not necessarily the case that social institutions, politics, economy, social organization, and belief systems were linked, or that they changed ''at the same time, at the same pace, and in the same direction.''”
From The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation (2016) · cites this paper as Yoffee 2005
Hierakonpolis was a space for attracting a 'density of social interaction' that was in turn generative for new scales of collective action, affording the opportunity to regularize emergent sets of social relations and specialist social roles.
“Nevertheless, whether it be efficacious mortuary rituals in the cemetery or largescale feasting around the settlement, Hierakonpolis was a space for attracting a ''density of social interaction'' (Yoffee 2005, p. 62) that was in turn generative for new scales of collective action, affording the opportunity to regularize emergent sets of social relations and specialist social roles.”
From The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation (2016) · cites this paper as Yoffee 2005
Cites
Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies
Crumley, C. L. (1995) · Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association · doi:10.1525/ap3a.1995.6.1.1 · Cited by 958 · see citing works
Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture
Netting, R. M. (1993) · doi:10.1515/9781503622067 · Cited by 756 · see citing works
Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia: An Essay in Historical Anthropology
Kirch, P. V., & Green, R. C. (2001) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511613678 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
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The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation
Stevenson, A. (2016) · Journal of Archaeological Research · doi:10.1007/s10814-016-9094-7 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
- Authors
- Yoffee, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yoffee, Norman
- ORCID
- Yoffee, Norman
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2005-01-13
- OpenAlex
- W4211023529
- Cited by
- 516
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 75 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 99.06
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Near East History
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Egypt and Archaeology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Keywords
- origin of the state, early states, social evolution, complex societies, Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, ancient China, Mesoamerica, state formation, state collapse, everyday life
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