Pastoral, Agricultural Village Societies, Chiefdoms
Question: why do different societies form? – environment, interactions with strangers, and choices
Different societies formed dependent upon whether the society domesticated plants or domesticated animals.
Pastoral Societies:
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Travel with animals
More dependent on animals if soil/land is no good for farming
Animal husbandry – “distinct form of food-producing economy”
Known as herders, pastoralists, or nomads = emerged in central Asia, the Arabian Penisula, the Sahara
(cattle-raising), and parts of eastern and southern Africa = what they had in common = mobility. Moved
seasonally – followed vegetation patterns to feed their animals
Domestication of horses – 4000 BCE – took thousands of years to master horseback riding – horseback
riding led to the growth of pastoral societies all over the steppes of Central Asia
Domestication of camels
No pastoral societies emerged in the Americas – why? No animals to domesticate
Conflict between pastoral societies and agriculture societies – why? Pastoral societies attracted to the
wealth and sophistication of agrarian societies – land was rich = good for animals to graze. Biblical story
= Cain and Abel
Role of women in Pastoral societies = milk the animals, produced textiles, Azerbaijan = women rode
horses and competed in battles – high status buried with armor. Important role in religious life
Agricultural Village Societies:
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Settled societies based on horticultural farmers
Social and gender equality – continued to do without kings, chiefs, bureaucrats, or aristocracies
Catalhuyuk = several thousand people, buried their dead under their homes – fill house with dirt, build
new house on top. No sign of male or female dominance – men associated with hunting, women with
plants and agriculture, as well as textiles. Widespread cult of the Goddess
Many village based agricultural societies flourished well into the modern era
Some modest social and economic inequalities = elders could exploit the labor of junior members, elders
tried to control women’s reproductive powers = importance of lineages
Adapted to a variety of environments, maintained a substantial degree of social and gender equality,
numerous cultural, artistic, and religious traditions
Chiefdoms:
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Agricultural village societies came to be organized politically as chiefdoms = inherited positions of power
Elements of inequality – chiefs seldom use force. Depend on their generosity or gift giving, their ritual
status
Tigris-Euphrates river valley = Mesopotamia – 6000 BCE
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Chiefs led important rituals and ceremonies, organized warfare, economic life, resolve internal conflicts,
collected tributes of food, manufactured goods, raw materials = gave to warriors, craftsmen, religious
specialists
Largest chiefdom = Cahokia – 1100 CE
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Agricultural revolution gave humankind the power to dominate nature, also enable some people to
dominate others
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Agricultural societies and pastoral communities retained much of the social equality similar to
Paleolithic societies
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Inequalities took place in highly productive agricultural settings, this ultimately leads to civilizations