Alternatives

The authors of this article depart from the idea that certain alternatives of development can be distinguished for every level of social evolution complexity. Different social and political forms have co-existed, competed with each other for a long time, and for some specific ecological and social niches non-general (in the retrospect) lines, models and variants could turn out more competitive and adequate than those that became dominant later. Hence as a rule, the argument about any inevitable outcome of evolution is true only in the most general respect (and only if certain conditions are observed): as an outcome of long-lasting competition between different forms, their disappearance, transformations, social selection, adaptation to various ecological conditions and so forth, while such an outcome could be not inevitable for each and every society in particular.

"Issues of formation and evolution of the early (archaic) state continue to remain among those problems which have not found their generally accepted solutions yet. Contributors to The Early State , Its Alternatives and Analogues represent both traditional and non-traditional points of view on the evolution of statehood. However, the data presented in the volume seem to demonstrate in a fairly convincing manner a great diversity of pathways to statehood, as well as non-universality of transformation into states of complex and even supercomplex societies. The diversity of sociopolitical forms, non-unilinearity of social evolution, presence of alternatives / analogues of the early state and complexity of state formation process far exceeding the ones indicated by conventional evolutionist schemes can be regarded as general ideas going through most contributions to the volume.


Contents


Introduction


Part I: Theory

1 Alternatives of Social Evolution ………………………………… 3

Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Leonid E. Grinin, and Andrey V. Korotayev

2 Was the Chiefdom a Congelation of Ideas? …………………… 28

Robert L. Carneiro

3 Beyond States and Empires: Chiefdoms and Informal Politics 46

Patrick Chabal, Gary Feinman, and Peter Skalnik

4 Alternative Models of Middle Range Society.

‘Individualistic' Asia vs . ‘Collectivistic' America ? …………… 61

Yuri E. Berezkin

5 Was the State Inevitable? ………………………………………… 72

Henri J. M. Claessen

6 The Early State and Its Analogues: A Comparative Analysis 88

Leonid E. Grinin


Part II: Early States

7 Early Dynastic Egypt : A Socio-Environmental/Anthropological

Hypothesis of ‘Unification' ………………………………………. 139

Dmitri B. Proussakov

8 The Ruler as Possessor of Power in Sumer …………………….. 181

Vladimir V. Emelianov

9 Ritual and Rationality:

Religious Roots of the Bureaucratic State in Ancient China 196

Richard Baum

10 Conquest Warfare, Strategies of Resistance, and the Rise

of the Zapotec Early State ……………………………………… 220

Charles S. Spencer and Elsa M. Redmond

11 The Pristine Myth of the Pristine State in America ……………. 262

Richard P. Schaedel and David G. Robinson

12 The Transition to Statehood in Central Europe ………………. 278

Ludomir R. Lozny

13 Formation and Development of States in the Congo Basin …… 288

Eleonora S. L'vova


Part III: Sedentary Alternatives and Analogues

14 The Chiefdom: Precursor of the Tribe? (Some Trends of Political

Evolution in North-East Yemeni Highlands) …………………… 300

Andrey V. Korotayev

15 From Local Communities to Megacommunity: Biniland

in the 1 st Millennium B.C.–19 th Century A.D. ………………… 325

Dmitri M. Bondarenko

16 Greece : The Stateless Polis (11 th – 4 th С enturies B.C.) …………. 364

Moshe Berent

17 Rome : Socio-political Evolution in the 8 th – 2 nd Centuries B.C. 388

Dmitri V. Dozhdev

18 Early State and Democra с y ……………………………………… 419

Leonid E. Grinin


Part IV. Nomadic Alternatives and Analogues

19 Cultural Capital, Livestock Raiding, and the Military Advantage

of Traditional Pastoralists ……………………………………… 466

William Irons

20 Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in Historical Retrospective 476

Anatoly M. Khazanov

21 Nomadic Empires in Evolutionary Perspective ………………… 501

Nikolay N. Kradin

22 Mongolian Nomadic Society of the Empire Period …………… 525

Tatyana D. Skrynnikova"

"PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
(Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011)

The notion of evolution is not popular in contemporary Anthropology. Many researchers do not use it preferring to write about transformation,
transit, or change. Evolution for them is synonymous to dogmatic understanding of human history (Yoffee 2005; Pauketat 2008). However,
even critics of evolutionism do not appear to reject= the very fact of continuous social change. In prehistory people were hunters and gatherers and were integrated in small bands. Later some of them experienced sedentarization and transition to food production, began to found towns and invent complex tools. It would be ridiculous to reject such changes. Another point is that contemporary vision of cultural transformations differs greatly from the naïve ideas of the 19th century evolutionists (see, e.g., Earle 2002; Claessen 2000; Carneiro 2003, Marcus 2008; Hanks, Linduff 2009; Earle, Kristiansen 2010 etc.). Contemporary approaches are more flexible and are based on a much more considerable set of evidence. That is why it would be wrong to criticize the scholars of the past for their knowledge of something worse than ours. They ought to be estimated in comparison with their contemporaries. So, we believe that the notion of evolution has a right to exist, and for already several decades we have been elaborating the ideas that can be called “new wave evolutionism”, or multievolutionism (non-linear evolution theory).
The first edition of the present volume was published over ten years ago, in 2000, in two languages, English and Russian (under the Альтернативные пути к цивилизации [Alternative pathways to the civilization] title given by the publisher for commercial reasons). It was the response of the then young generation of post-Soviet anthropologists in league with prominent Western and Russian scholars to dogmatic Marxist interpretations of older, Soviet ethnologists and archaeologists (see also Korotayev, Chubarov 1991; Kradin, Lynsha 1995). Several other collective edited volumes (Bondarenko, Korotayev 2000; Kradin, Bondarenko, Barfield 2003; Grinin et al 2004; Bondarenko, Nemirovsky 2007; Grinin, Beliaev, Korotayev 2008 etc.), monographs (Korotayev 1995; 1996; 2003; Bondarenko 2001; 2006; Korotayev et al 2006; Kradin, Skrynnikova 2006; Grinin 2007; Kradin 2007; 2010; Grinin, Korotayev 2009) and journal articles (Beliaev, Bondarenko, Korotayev 2001; Kradin 2002; Bondarenko, Korotayev 2003; Bondarenko 2007a; 2007b) have appeared since then. Five “Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations” international conferences held in Moscow and St. Petersburg between 2000 and 2009 turned out very important for elaboration of the non-linear sociocultural evolution theory. The Social Evolution & History English-language journal published in Russia since 2002 has become a venue for discussion of the non-linear evolution theory, ideas and evidence related to it. In particular, besides an impressive number of separate articles, the following special issues and sections, among others, have been published in it: Exploring the Horizons of Big History (2005, Vol. 4, No 1), Thirty Years of Early State Research (2008, Vol. 7, No1), The Early State in Anthropological Theory (2009, Vol. 8, No 1), Analyses of Cultural Evolution (2009, Vol. 8, No 2), Urbanization, Regional Diversity and the Problem of State Formation in Europe (2010, Vol. 9, No 2). One more discussion, Chiefdoms in the process of social evolution: theory, problems and comparative studies, is to appear in
the Journal soon (was published in 2011 as Vol.10, Iss. 1. - D.B.).
Alternatives of Social Evolution consists of five parts. The first part includes theoretical studies of non-linear evolution. Articles on the alternative pathways of the prehistoric societies’ evolution form the volume’s second part. The evolutionary pathways of complex societies and state origins are the topics of the volume’s third and forth parts. The closing part is devoted to nomadic societies. We hope that the book has not lost its relevance and will remain in demand by readers."

Community economies can be considered as examples of the diverse economies growing outside common capitalist logics of private accumulation and profit, seeking to bypass or reconfigure dominant global trends of societal and economic organization. Yet, these communities seem to fit quite well under a neoliberal program in which responsibilities are shifting downwards, favoring multi-level governance over State intervention and accountability. This binary character makes imperative an open and critical discussion on the development of community initiatives, including on the motivations and visions of citizens practicing alternative ethical consumption. This article explores the neoliberal rationalities embraced by community members within the ima-ginaries of change they frame and examines how these rationalities contribute to (re)producing neoliberal conditions and forms of governance. Our analysis builds on semi-structured interviews conducted among the members of 11 initiatives in 5 EU countries and on participant observation. We argue here that communities articulate an " alternative imaginary " of change that appears imprinted by core neoliberal rationalities around questions of individual responsibility, the role of the State, and civic participation and equity. It is an imaginary related to the construction of CBEs to bypass existing socio-political and economic configurations. This imaginary more often than not responds to neoliberal promises of individual freedom and autonomy and seems to undermine CBEs' more radical possibilities at the same time obscuring more diverse voices of transformation.

Agrifood corporations are driving industrialization along the entire global value chain, from farm to plate. Their purchasing and sales policies promote a form of agriculture that revolves around productivity. The fight for market share is achieved at the expense of the weakest links in the chain: farmers, and workers. The price pressure exerted by supermarkets and food firms is a major cause of poor working conditions and poverty further back in the chain. It also promotes the onward march of industrial agriculture and its associated effects on the environment and climate. The loss of soil fertility and biodiversity, marine pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases: all these are partly due to the spread of industrial farming. Despite all this, a reorientation is still not in sight – except in a few promising cases. On the contrary, attempts to make binding rules on human rights, working conditions and the environment are routinely torpedoed. A major reason lies in the power relations described in this atlas. To push for the necessary political changes, we first need to understand the business models and growth strategies of the corporations.

Background: High antimicrobial usage and the threat of antimicrobial resistance highlighted the need for reduced antimicrobial usage in pig production. Prevention of disease however, is necessary to obtain a reduced need for antimicrobial treatment. This study aimed at assessing possible associations between the biosecurity level, antimicrobial usage and farm and production characteristics in order to advice on best practices for a low antimicrobial usage and maximum animal health and production. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 227 farrow-to-finish pig herds in Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden between December 2012 and December 2013. Associations between biosecurity status, antimicrobial usage, and production parameters were evaluated with multivariable general linear models, according to an assumed causal pathway. Results: The results showed that higher antimicrobial usage in sows tended to be associated with higher antimicrobial usage from birth until slaughter (p = 0.06). The antimicrobial usage from birth until slaughter was positively associated with the number of pathogens vaccinated against (p < 0.01). A shorter farrowing rhythm (p < 0.01) and a younger weaning age (p = 0.06) tended to be also associated with a higher antimicrobial usage from birth until slaughter whereas a better external biosecurity (p < 0.01) was related with a lower antimicrobial usage from birth until slaughter. Conclusion: Management practices such as weaning age and biosecurity measures may be important factors indirectly impacting on antimicrobial usage. We therefore promote a holistic approach when assessing the potential to reduce the need for antimicrobial treatments.

A remarkable, first-ever collection of 35 essays on India's future, by a diverse set of authors – activists, researchers, media practitioners, those who have influenced policies and those working at the grassroots. This book brings together scenarios of an India that is politically and socially egalitarian, radically democratic, economically sustainable and equitable, and socio-culturally diverse and harmonious. Alternative Futures: India Unshackled covers a wide range of issues, organized under four sections. It explores ecological futures including environmental governance, biodiversity conservation, water and energy. Next, it envisions political futures including those of democracy and power, law, ideology, and India's role in the globe. A number of essays then look at economic futures, including agriculture, pastoralism, industry, crafts, villages and cities, localization, markets, transportation and technology. Finally, it explores socio-cultural futures, encompassing languages, learning and education, knowledge, health, sexuality and gender, and marginalized sections like dalits, adivasis, and religious minorities. Introductory and concluding essays tie these diverse visions together. Most essays include both futuristic scenarios and present initiatives that demonstrate the possibility of such futures. At a time when India faces increasing polarization along parochial, physical and mental boundaries, these essays provide a breath of fresh air and hope in the grounded possibilities for an alternative, decentralized, eco-culturally centred future. The essays range from the dreamy-eyed to the hard-headed, from the provocative to the gently persuasive.