Breakout : Origins of Civilization (00 Edition)

For much of the twentieth century, Mesopotamia was thought to he the singular "Cradle of Civilization;" and the agents of change that brought it about were thought to be demographic, ecological, and technological. Bronze Age Mesopotamian accomplishments were believed to have diffused outward, influencing the development of civilization in the rest of the world. Part of this Mesopocentric view was revised as archaeological evidence revealed that other unique civilizations had existed in both the Old and New Worlds, but the traditional Near Eastern pattern of development continued to serve as a model.

In the mid-1980s, however, Harvard's Kwang-chih Chang proposed in Symbols--a publication of Harvard's Peabody Museum and Department of Anthropology--that China's first civilization did not evolve according to the conventional Mesopotamian model and argued instead for a new paradigm for understanding the origins of civilization in ancient China and the New World.

In this collection of subsequent Symbols articles and other essays, Maya and Near Eastern studies specialists engage in a stimulating debate of Chang's thesis, also presented here.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: In the Beginning
Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky

1. Ancient China and Its Anthropological Significance
Kwang-chih Chang

2. The Near Eastern "Breakout" and the Mesopotamian Social Contract
C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky

3. Ancient Chinese, New World, and Near Eastern Ideological Traditions: Some Observations
Gordon R. Willey

4. On Theories of Order and Justice in the Development of Civilization
David H. P. Maybury-Lewis

5. Sacred Landscape and Maya Kingship
Linda Schele

6. The Indo-European Origins of the Concept of a Democratic Society
Mason Hammond

7. How Was Ancient Israel Different?
William G. Dever

8. Absolutism and Reciprocity in Ancient Egypt
Mark Lehner

9. Harappan Beginnings
Gregory L. Possehl

10. Orientalism and Near Eastern Archaeology
Mogens Trolle Larsen

Index