Killing civilization : a reassessment of early urbanism and its consequences / Justin Jennings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jennings, Justin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns, Ancient.

Civilization, Ancient.

Human settlements.

Urbanization.

Physical Description:

xiv, 360 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2016.

Summary:

The concept of civilization has long been the basis for theories about how societies evolve. This provocative book challenges that concept. The author argues that a "civilization bias" shapes academic explanations of urbanization, colonization, state formation, and cultural horizons. Earlier theorists have criticized the concept, but according to Jennings the critics remain beholden to it as a way of making sense of a dizzying landscape of cultural variation. Relying on the idea of civilization, he suggests, holds back understanding of the development of complex societies. Killing Civilization uses case studies from across the modern and ancient world to develop a new model of incipient urbanism and its consequences, using excavation and survey data from Çatalhöyük, Cahokia, Harappa, Jenne-jeno, Tiahuanaco, and Monte Albán to create a more accurate picture of the turbulent social, political, and economic conditions in and around the earliest cities. The book will influence not just anthropology but all of the social sciences.

Contents:

1 Civilization, or Morgan's Golem 1

2 The Golem's March 25

3 Becoming a City 59

4 Çatalhöyük and the Aborted Cities of the Neolithic Near East 87

5 Cahokia's Failure and the Creation of the Mississippian Cultural Horizon 115

6 Harappa and the Walled Cities of the Indus River Valley 145

7 Jenne-jeno and the Clustered Cities of the Inland Niger Delta 177

8 Tiahuanaco and the Creation of the Andean Middle Horizon 203

9 Monte Albán and the Making of a Zapotec State 235

10 Without Civilization 265.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-355) and index.

ISBN:

9780826356604

0826356605

OCLC:

923728032