Trey Thomas
Anthropology 101/Section 04
04/05/12
Essay 07
John H. Bodley believes that states (a cultural society consisting of cultural
groups that by majority rule have common beliefs) will inevitably collapse. Bodley
theorizes this belief through his thesis: “All scales of cultures have an elite-direct process
that innate socio-economic growth that will concentrate power in direct proportion to
increase in cultural scale; then larger-scale cultural systems should have more
concentrated social power; and people may be disproportionately impoverish, and
disempowered by certain growth processes; inevitably leading to global problems of
poverty, hunger, conflict, and environmental degradation.” States to Bodley is the
inevitable way a culture can turn to innate positive self-destruction.
Contrary to Bodley’s thesis that all states will eventually collapse, there is
intimate proof that the formation of states even with the high stakes that Bodley states of
collapsing, prove to be a higher benefit to the people of that state and sometimes to those
around them and the world. An example of the benefit to having a state is Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia wasn’t always a state, to become what is considered a state many systems
within would need to be created and thus work together.
The first cities in the rise of the state Mesopotamia began to appear in the Uruk
period around 6700-5200 B.P. (before present). Around this same time period the first
kind of writing that the Mesopotamians used called Cuneiform. The ability of there to be
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a uniformed written language in Mesopotamia gave them great upper knowledge, which
allowed them to keep records and communicate long distances. The ability to keep
records and have long ranged communication allowed for information to travel across to
all the people, and bases for recalling the past and to keep track of the present.
Pottery was also popular around this same time period in Mesopotamia. Two
types of pottery to mention are Halafian and Ubaid Pottery. Halafian pottery was delicate
and associated with elites or the noble class. Ubaid pottery was associated with advanced
chiefdoms. Both types of pottery were useful in trade, which allowed for the
Mesopotamians to succeed in their economy.
After the creation of cuneiform and economic growth through pottery and other
goods and services, the beginning of the state Mesopotamia begins to shape. Around
4100 B.P. temples or Ziggurat as the Mesopotamians called them began to emerge. A
Ziggurat is a flat topped pyramid so to speak with tears or platforms going all the way up.
An example of a Ziggurat is “The Ziggurat of Ur, the best-surviving example today… the
base platform was 200ft by 150ft and 50ft high. Two other levels were built on top of
this, and they were topped by a small shrine to the moon god Nanna, so that the total
height was at least 70ft.”
The Ziggurat’s of Mesopotamia are very similar to the one in Ur as described.
The Mesopotamians used Ziggurat’s as storehouses; managed herding, farming,
manufacture, and trade. “Priests used Cuneiform to keep track of the temples’ economic
activities.” For the Mesopotamians to construct these Ziggurat’s, there was a lot of
disciplined work needed. The Lords or Masters better known as human rulers would for
see what the deities or the Mesopotamian gods need and construct them. The Lord or
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Master of Mesopotamia would pass the message from their deities down that the creation
of a ziggurat was needed. The Lord or Master would then also promise his people that
with the creation of the Ziggurat would please their deities and many prayers or wishes
would be granted.
With an established growing economy that the Mesopotamians created with their
pottery and constructed, distribution, and records with their Ziggurat’s, the formation of
their state begins to take shape. The Mesopotamians started to develop large populations
within their state, they started to construct several cities that were densely concentrated
and sectioned off by walls. These walled in cities is what separated different classes of
people. These classes consisted of the nobles, who were on top, the rich citizens along
with the Lord or Master and his people. In the middle were the commoners, consisting of
the working class. On bottom were the slaves, mostly captured people from other places
and often bought from traders on trade routes. The walled cities did not bring only
separation of peoples but allowed for inner state diversity to occur without or little
outside interface.
The shape of the state Mesopotamia is now realized through their potter that
helped their economy, the construction of Ziggurat’s that provided jobs and a peace of
mind that they may be pleasing their Lord or Master and thus their deities, and the
formation of cities consisting in class structure of nobles, commoners, and slaves. When
taking the state Mesopotamia and compare it to Bodley’s thesis one issue arises. Bodley
states that with the formation of a state, ones culture has inevitably constructed their own
demise in that with social power through class structure, global problems of poverty,
hunger, conflict, and environmental degradation will emerge. The issue arisen is that if
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these global problems do occur and then left undone, then yes a state has already begun
its own collapse. On the contrary if or when these global problems arise and then deled
immediately with openness and adaptive motives a state has the ability to sill coexisted in
the world and all problems that may emerge.
Bodley and his thesis that the creation of a state like Mesopotamia is inconclusive
only to the degree that if that state can continue to adapt as it adapted again and again to
become a state, every citizen of that sate by majority will have their needs met, and thus
the creation of a state proves Bodley and his thesis wrong that states are inevitably
deemed to collapse. As for the state Mesopotamia, Bodley’s thesis proves right as their
particular state could not meet majority’s needs and thus the apparent failure of the state
as Bodley says occurs. Bodley does not mention in his thesis that with the failure of a
state that another state usually arises from the failures of the one before to make a better
new state. That leaves thought that the adaptive quality needed for a state’s survival is
not within the state itself but realized from the state’s mistakes, and thus a new, better
state can emerge.
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Work Cited
Bodley, J. H. (2011). Cultural anthropology, tribes, states, and the global system. (5th ed
ed.). Altamira Pr.
Dalton, Douglas. "Politics and Political-Scale Culture." Longwood University, Farmville,
VA, 23909. 04/04/2012. Lecture.
I Pledge:____________________________