Anthropology 2031-01 (6085) 
 University of Utah - Summer Semester 2006
 Dr. Ewa Wasilewska

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COURSE OUTLINE
 
Instructor:  Dr. Ewa Wasilewska
Office hours:  By appointment only; please call the Department of Anthropology (581-6251) and leave your name, phone number, and class number. 
Time:  Each Monday and Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location:  Campus: ST 205
Important dates:  May 24, 06 - last day to drop classes
May 30, 06 - last day to add classes
May 30, 06 - last day to elect CR/NC option or to audit classes
June 2, 06 - last day to withdraw from term length classes
Required Texts: All required articles/chapters (in chronological order) are to be found at the Reserve Desk at Marriott Library. Please check also electronic reserve by Marriott Library. 
All articles/chapters are listed below as the required reading for specific weeks. 

Ewa Wasilewska: Rise of Civilization. Notes. 2006. (EW)

Notes can be purchased during the first three class meetings from an instructor.
Future/Optional Texts: Such texts are listed after required readings about any of the discussed civilizations. You don’t have to read them this semester (or any other semester) but if you are interested in exploring any specific subject on your own, this is a start.
Subject: This course fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Integration. It focuses on the rise of various civilizations around the world. This class explores such famous complex societies as Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Maya, as well as those less known but equally important as the Indus Valley or nomadic empire of the Hsiung-Nu. 
Requirements:  Come to the lectures, enjoy them, do your readings, and pass required exams/ assignments (all - take home; each - 5 pages, typed, double space).  At the end of the semester turn in your paper (7 pages plus bibliography) on your most favorite civilization!  And remember, always laugh at the instructor’s jokes!

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Meeting # 1 - May 15, 2006

Toward a definition of “CIVILIZATION”. 
 
  • [From] Common understanding: “You know it when you find it,” i.e., selected histories of discoveries.
    • Origin of the term itself (Latin "civilis, civilitas, civis, civitas"; French "civilisation, civilisateur, civiliser;").
    • Other terms (e.g., “prehistory versus history,” “complex versus primitive societies”).
    • Selected discoveries: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Minoan, and Mesoamerican civilizations.
  • [Through] Classical listing of elements of civilization (understood as “urbanization”).
  • [To] Modern methodologies in comparative studies of various civilizations. 
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Required readings (don’t panic, everything will be explained in the class):

Notes #1

Childe, V. Gordon. The Urban Revolution. Pp. 6-14. In Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. & Jeremy A. Sabloff. The Rise And Fall of Civilizations. Cummings Publishing Company. 1974. 

Fagan, Brian M. Chapter 19. Study of Cultural Process: Processual archaeology. Pp. 507-523.In  In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology. Little, Brown and Company. 1985.

Buren, Mary Van & Janet Richards. Introduction: ideology, wealth, and the comparative study of “civilizations.” Pp. 3-12.  In Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States. Part I: Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States. Cambridge University Press. 2000.
 
Baines, John & Norman Yoffee. Order, legitimacy, & wealth: setting the terms. Pp. 13-17. In Buren, Mary Van & Janet Richards, eds. Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States. Part I: Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States. Cambridge University Press. 2000.
 

Future/optional reading:

McGuire, Randall H. Core and Periphery Systems. Pp. 132-137. In Ellis, Linda ed. Archaeological Method and Theory. An Encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, Inc. 2000.

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Meeting # 2 - May 17, 2006

Civilization out of clay: MESOPOTAMIA.
 
  • Writing: the main or just contributing factor in the development of civilization.
  • Temples - centers of distribution.
  • Many “firsts” on which a civilization is supposed to be based.
  • From city-states to the first empire.
  • Rich people, “poor” neighbours.
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 2.

Nissen, Hans J. The Period of Early High Civilization. Pp. 65-128. In The Early History of the Ancient Near East. The University of Chicago Press. 1988. 

Sweet, Ronald F.G. Writing as a Factor in the Rise of Urbanism. Pp. 35-49. In Aufrecht, Walter E., Neil A. Mirau & Steven W. Gauley eds. Urbanism in Antiquity. Sheffield Academic Press. 1997.

Future/optional reading (absolutely great and fun to read):

Kramer, Samuel Noah. History Begins in Sumer. The University of Pennsylvania Press. 1981.
 
 

Meeting # 3 - May 22, 2006

Cities of the dead but where were the living? EGYPT.
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  • Religion: through battles to unity. 
  • Pharaoh: a god left behind?
  • Writing: an independent invention?
  • Grand scale of public works.
  • Urban legend of the huts. 
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 3.

Redford, Donald B. The Ancient Egyptian “City”: Figment or Reality? Pp. 210-220. In Aufrecht, Walter E., Neil A. Mirau & Steven W. Gauley eds. Urbanism in Antiquity. Sheffield Academic Press. 1997.

Routledge, Carolyn. Temple as the Center in Ancient Egyptian Urbanism. Pp. 221-235. In Aufrecht, Walter E., Neil A. Mirau & Steven W. Gauley eds. Urbanism in Antiquity. Sheffield Academic Press. 1997.

Patterson, Thomas C. Africa and Egypt. Pp. 187-207. In Archaeology: The Historical Development of Civilizations. Prentice-Hall Inc. 1993.

Future/optional readings (fun, fun, fun):

Almost anything about ancient Egyptian religion. (Avoid those without pictures).
Karl-Theodor Zauzich: Hieroglyphs without Mystery. University of Texas Press. 1996. (Impress your friends with knowledge of the ancient Egyptian script). ;-)
 
 

Meeting # 4 - May 24, 2006

Staying in charge. The emergence of THE MINOAN
and MYCENAEAN civilizations...
  • Palace-centered polities. 
  • Mystery of its origin – the Minoan Linear A.
  • Continuation of the island culture on land: the Mycenaean civilization.
  • Heinrich Schliemann: reinventing the legend of Troy.
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 4

Tsipopoulou, Metaxia. Palace-Centered Polities in Eastern Crete: Neopalatial Petras and Its Neighbors. Pp. 263-277. In Aufrecht, Walter E., Neil A. Mirau & Steven W. Gauley eds. Urbanism in Antiquity. Sheffield Academic Press. 1997.

Wolff, Walther. The Aegean. Pp. 165-203. In Early Civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Aegean. The Herbert Press. 1989.

Future/optional readings:

Works of Homer. You should go through them at least once in your life.

TAKE HOME EXAM - to be returned on June 5, 2006
 
 

Meeting # 5 - May 29, 2006

Memorial Day Holiday!
 
 

Meeting # 6 - May 31, 2006

Galloping through the steppe to civilization. 
THE HITTITES and others OF ANATOLIA.
  • Catal Hoyuk - a city with no right to exist.
  • The Indo-Europeans and those whom they ruled.
  • From nomads to urban dwellers to an empire?
  • In the name of tolerance: let’s worship them all.
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings: 

Notes # 5-6

Dunstan, William E. Chapter VIII. The Hittites of Anatolia and Their Contemporaries. Pp. 154-175. In The Ancient Near East. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1998.

Hamblin, Dora Jane. Chapter III. The Shrines of Catal Hoyuk. Pp. 42-67. In The First Cities. Time-Life Books. 1973.
 

Future/optional reading (boring but very informative):

Macqueen, J.G. The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor. Thames and Hudson. 1986.
 
 

Meeting # 7 - June 5, 2006

Land without conflict?  THE INDUS VALLEY civilization.
  • The Dravidian and Indo-Aryan question.
  • Land without social stratification?
  • Too much religion or not enough - can we even speculate?
  • Focus on hygiene? Disposable cups and bath-houses.
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 7

Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark. Introduction. Pp. 15-19. In Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press. 1998.

Patterson, Thomas C. Harappan Society: Class-stratified or kin-based? Pp. 141-146. In  Archaeology. The Historical Development of Civilizations. Prentice Hall. 1993.

Future/optional reading (very informative):

Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press. 1998.
 
 

Meeting # 8 - June 7, 2006

Too many empires, too much conflict: CHINA AND HSIUNG-NU.
  • Sedentary versus nomadic empires: China vs. Hsiung-Nu.
  • The Great Wall and Teracotta Warriors of Xi’an. 
  • In search of defense: the Silk Road. 
  • Is the conflict still there?
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 8

Barnes, Gina L. Chapter 12. The Making and Breaking of Empire. 220 B.C. - A.D. 500. Pp. 192-207. In The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan. Thames & Hudson. 1999. 

Di Cosmo, Nicola. Those Who Draw the Bow. The Rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the Political Unification of the Nomads. Pp. 161-205. In Ancient China and Its Enemies. The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. 2002.

Future/optional reading (very interesting but also confusing at times):

Di Cosmo’s whole book.
 
 

Meeting # 9 - June 12, 2006

The “enigma” of the New World: THE MAYA, 
THE AZTECS and THE  INCAS.
 
  • Continuum of complexity: Mesoamerica as a scholarly dream.
  • From prehistory to history: decipherment of the Mayan languages and writing.
  • Chocolate to die for: human sacrifices and commerce among the Aztecs.
  • Is the writing necessary? The Inca Empire.
  • Childe’s and others’ check lists.
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Required readings:

Notes # 9

Smith, Michael E. & Marilyn A. Masson, eds. Part III. Political Organization. (6 articles by different authors). Pp. 252-359. In The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica. A Reader. Blackwell Publishers. 2000.

Patterson, Thomas C. Chapter 15. South America. Pp. 327-348. In Archaeology: The Historical Development of Civilizations. Prentice Hall. 1993.

Future/optional reading (fun and informative):

Foster, Lynn V. Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World. Facts On File, Inc. 2002.
 
 

Meeting # 10 - June 14, 2006

ODDS AND ENDS. FINAL DISCUSSION.

TAKE HOME EXAM - to be returned on June 5, 2006
 
 

Meeting # 11 - June 19, 2006
Meeting # 10 - June 21, 2006

A movie week. The following movies are available in the Marriott Library.

Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization.  Legacy . #1. V-Cass CB 311 L43 1991. 
Egypt: Quest for Immortality. Time Life’s Lost Civilizations. #4. V-Cass CB 311 T54 1995 v. 1. 
China: The Mandate of Heaven. Legacy . #3. V-Cass CB 311 L43 1991. Silk Road series.
Inca: Secrets of the Ancestors. Time Life’s Lost Civilizations. #9. V-Cass CB 311 T54 1995. v. 9. 
Maya: The Blood of Kings. Time Life’s Lost Civilizations. #9. V-Cass CB 311 T54 1995. v. 2. 

For your final (take-home) assignment, write a comparative critique of these movies using class lectures and readings and, in the process, select three “primary movers” which are, in your opinion, best represented by these civilizations. Please, justify your selections. 

AUGUST 2, 2006 - final exams, assignments, and research papers must be turned in to the Dept. of Anthropology, ST. Build. 102.
 
 
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