The Flow of Power

by Scarborough, Vernon L.

• ISBN13: 9781930618329
• ISBN10: 1930618328
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: School for Advanced Research/Sar pr

Summary

A major contribution to one of the central themes in social theory, this book integrates multiple case studies of the relationship between water control and social organization. Substantial in empirical detail and featuring powerful theoretical extensions, Scarborough's analysis encompasses early Harappan society in South Asia, highland Mexico, the Maya lowlands, north-central Sri Lanka, the prehistoric American Southwest, and Bronze Age Greece. This book is the first longitudinal study to consider water management worldwide since Karl Wittfogel put forth his "hydraulic societies" hypothesis nearly two generations ago, and it draws together the diverse debates that seminal work inspired. In so doing, Scarborough offers new models for cross-cultural analysis and prepares the ground for new examinations of power, centralization, and the economy.

Author Biography

Vernon L. Scarborough is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
1 Water, the Fundamental Resource	1	(8)
The Importance of Studying Water Management	2	(2)
The Study of Ancient Water Management	4	(5)
2 The Organizing Concepts of Water Work	9	(8)
Heterarchy versus Hierarchy	11	(2)
Accretional versus Expansionist Development	13	(1)
Economic Logics	13	(4)
3 Contemporary Thought and Recent Intellectual History	17	(22)
The Balinese Problem	19	(7)
The For-or-Against Syndrome	19	(1)
The Autonomous Water Users	20	(1)
The Subtleties of the Engineered Landscape	21	(3)
Centralization and Taxation	24	(1)
Centralization and "Centering"	25	(1)
Struggles for Terminological Rigor	26	(4)
Explicit Definitions	26	(2)
Additional Aspects of Centrality	28	(1)
Organizational Planes	29	(1)
Initial Conditions and Common Property	30	(3)
The Process of Economic Change	33	(5)
Asia and Europe	33	(2)
Africa	35	(3)
Rates, Process, and Economy	38	(1)
4 Engineering the Landscape for Water Management	39	(40)
Characteristics of Water	39	(1)
Climate and Geomorphology	40	(3)
Arid Regions	41	(1)
Humid Regions	42	(1)
Landscape Alterations	43	(36)
Wells	43	(4)
Reservoirs and Dams	47	(17)
New World	47	(7)
Old World	54	(10)
Canals	64	(27)
New World	65	(4)
Old World	69	(10)
5 Nonagricultural Aspects of Water Management	79	(12)
Transportation	79	(1)
Defense	80	(2)
Drainage and Flood Control	82	(1)
Nomadic/Sedentist Symbiosis	82	(1)
Ritual	83	(1)
Symbolic Statements	84	(7)
6 Economic Outlays and Political Risks of Water Management	91	(16)
Costs	91	(2)
Short-Term Costs	92	(1)
Long-Term Costs	92	(1)
Expansion and Contraction	93	(3)
Growing Systems	94	(1)
Declining Systems	94	(2)
Allocation	96	(3)
Still-Water versus Moving-Water Systems	99	(3)
Political Organization	102	(1)
Rural-Urban Dichotomy	103	(4)
7 Archaeological Case Studies-New World	107	(26)
Southern Maya Lowlands (400 BC-AD 900)	108	(7)
Reservoir Dependency	110	(2)
Settlement	112	(1)
Economic Outlays	112	(2)
Ritual and the Semitropical Setting	114	(1)
Highland Mexico (100 BC-AD 750)	115	(9)
Chinampa Agriculture and Settlement Patterns	117	(4)
Definitions of City	121	(2)
Economic Outlays	123	(1)
The Lowlands and Highlands Compared	124	(1)
U.S. Southwest (AD 150-1400)	125	(4)
Physical Water Management Systems	125	(2)
Political Economy and Settlement	127	(2)
World Comparisons	129	(4)
8 Archaeological Case Studies-Old World	133	(20)
North-Central Sri Lanka (AD 1-1200)	134	(6)
A Landscape of Reservoirs	134	(3)
Monumentality and Organization	137	(3)
Lower Indus Valley (2550-1900 BC)	140	(6)
The Environment and the Indus River	140	(1)
The Indus and Agricultural Intensification	141	(2)
Precipitous Development and Cultural Homogenization	143	(1)
Social Distance and Purity	144	(1)
Settlement and Economic Outlays	145	(1)
Mycenaean Greece (1500-1150 BC)	146	(7)
Historical and Environmental Background	148	(2)
Earthquakes	150	(3)
World Comparisons
9 Conclusions	153	(14)
Theories of the Economy and Water Use	154	(4)
Economic Practices	158	(5)
Maya Lowlands	159	(1)
Highland Mexico	160	(1)
Hohokam of the U.S. Southwest	160	(1)
North-Central Sri Lanka	161	(1)
Harappans of the Indus Valley	162	(1)
Mycenaeans of Bronze Age Greece	163	(1)
Final Overview	163	(4)
Notes	167	(4)
References	171	(26)
Index	197