Archaeology of the Origin of the State The Theories

by Lull, Vicente; Mico, Rafael

• ISBN13: 9780199557844
• ISBN10: 0199557845
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book, newly translated from the original Spanish, first offers a summary of the main theories about what we today call the 'State', a category that draws together various interests in the research into the past of human societies and, at the same time, inspires passionate political and ideological debate. The authors review political philosophies from Greek antiquity to contemporary evolutionism. They then examine how the State has been viewed and studied within archaeology in the twentieth century, and offer an alternative approach based upon historical materialism. Their argument that this method can be profitably used to study the archaeological record is a sophisticated and creative contribution to current theory, and will inspire debate about its implications for our understanding of human history.

Author Biography

Vincente Lull is Professor of Prehistory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Rafael Mico is Lecturer in Prehistory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Theories About The State
The Classical Conception	p. 3
Plato (428-347 bc)	p. 3
Social classes in Plato's Republic	p. 5
Forms of government	p. 9
Conclusion	p. 10
Aristotle (384-322 bc)	p. 12
Forms of government	p. 15
Conclusions	p. 16
Differences and similarities within the classical conception	p. 17
The State according to Christianity	p. 24
Precedents of Christian political thought	p. 25
St Thomas of Aquinas (1225-74)	p. 28
Conclusions	p. 33
The Renaissance of the State	p. 36
Machiavelli (1469-1527)	p. 36
Conclusions	p. 41
The Seventeenth Century. Fear and Property	p. 44
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): the reasonable wolf	p. 45
Individual and society	p. 49
Conclusion	p. 52
John Locke (1632-1704): the instigator of 'human rights'	p. 53
Conclusion	p. 59
The Eighteenth Century: Lights and Shadows in the State	p. 65
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)	p. 67
Rousseau and political participation	p. 78
Conclusion	p. 81
The Absolute State	p. 86
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)	p. 86
Hegelian philosophy and his triads	p. 87
The elements of the philosophy of right	p. 89
The State	p. 98
Conclusion: problems with the Hegelian State	p. 102
The Critique of the State in Marx	p. 108
From idealist humanism to historical materialism	p. 109
The historical conditions of the State: The German Ideology	p. 114
The historical conditions of the State: The Formen	p. 117
Forms of property and State	p. 121
The future of the State	p. 124
Marxist tradition and the State	p. 127
Evolutionism and State	p. 135
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-81)	p. 137
Savagery	p. 140
Barbarism	p. 141
Civilization	p. 142
The meanings of evolutionary periodization	p. 143
Neo-evolutionism	p. 148
Elman R. Service (1915-96)	p. 151
Bands	p. 151
Tribes	p. 151
Chiefdom	p. 152
Primitive States and archaic civilizations	p. 152
Egalitarian or segmental societies	p. 153
Chiefdom societies	p. 154
Archaic civilization and State	p. 155
Morton H. Fried (1923-86)	p. 157
The egalitarian society	p. 157
Hierarchized or rank societies	p. 158
Stratified societies	p. 159
The State	p. 160
Neo-evolutionism: discussion and assessment	p. 161
Conclusion	p. 168
Archaeology of The State
Archaeology and Research on the State	p. 175
Definition of the object of study	p. 176
The impact of V. G. Childe (1892-1957)	p. 180
Processual archaeology and research on the formation of the State	p. 189
Complexity	p. 194
Evolution, typologies, and surveys	p. 197
Empirical regularity and explanation	p. 203
The explanation of change: the reasons for the rise of civilizations	p. 207
Critical remarks	p. 212
Archaeology of the State in post-modern times	p. 215
Towards a Marxist Archaeology of the State	p. 227
Notes for archaeological research on the State: theory	p. 230
The production of social life	p. 231
Division of tasks and the social division of production	p. 232
General production and the 'place' of politics	p. 234
The formation of the State	p. 237
The politics of State	p. 241
The state-of-the-world	p. 244
Notes for archaeological research on the State: method	p. 246
Epilogue. Theories on the State and the Archaeology of the State: Continuities and Complicity	p. 255
Individual and... society?	p. 255
Social relationships	p. 259
Morality, identity, and State	p. 262
Modem archaeology and State	p. 268
References	p. 273
Index	p. 283
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