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Against the Grain

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Against the Grain

A Deep History of the Earliest States
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Hardback
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Description

An account of all the new and surprising evidence now available that contradicts the standard narrative for the beginnings of the earliest civilizations Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family-all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction. Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the "barbarians" who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and nonsubject peoples.

Author Biography

James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and codirector of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University.
Release date NZ
September 1st, 2017
Author
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
Country of Publication
United States
Illustrations
13 b-w illus.
Imprint
Yale University Press
Pages
336
Publisher
Yale University Press
Dimensions
140x210x29
ISBN-13
9780300182910
Product ID
26836616

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