First Civilizations:
Cities, States, and Unequal Societies
AP World History
Mr. Colden
Fall 2013
Question of Origins

Developed from earlier competing chiefdoms

Why some Chiefdoms?
 Argument 1:
 Argument 2:
 Argument 3:

All first civilizations relied on highly productive
agriculture
The Erosion of Equality

Hierarchies of Class
 First civilizations had vast inequalities in wealth,
status, and power
 New levels of inequality represent one of the major
turning points in the social history of human kind

Upper Classes:
Free population = vast majority of population

Slaves at the bottom level

The Erosion of Equality

Hierarchies of Gender


Civilizations everywhere undermined earlier more equal relationships
between men and women
Emergence of Patriarchy
 AGR based on plow and large dairy herd favored men
 Declining position of women was a product of growing social
complexity
 David Christian
 Association of women with nature at a time when mankind was
conquering nature
 Warfare contributed to Patriarchy
 Assure inheritance by Father’s offspring
The Erosion of Equality

Patriarchy in Practice
 Gerda Lerner: emergence of Patriarchy in Mesopotamia
 Women divided into 2 categories
 Written law codes codified Patriarchal family life
 Powerful goddess of Mesopotamia gradually replaced
by male deities
 Egyptian Patriarchy
 Greater opportunities than in most 1st Civilizations
 Royal women occasionally held political power
 Egyptian statues and love poetry suggest affection
between sexes
Rise of the State

Coercion and Consent
 The state fulfilled a variety of roles in coordinating
and regulating 1st civilizations
 State served the needs of the upper classes by:
 State frequently used force to secure its will
 BUT force wasn’t always necessary because it
claimed its authority was normal, natural, and
ordained by gods
 Remember Why We Study History? by Stearns
Rise of the State

Writing and Accounting
 Writing sustained 1st cultures
 Writing also served functions beyond state

Grandeur of Kings