Exam 11: Agricultural States

The construction of monumental architecture such as the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan required a form of organization that persuaded the population to provide labor for the benefit of the state.

What theories account for the structural similarities between the Egyptian pyramids and those in Mesoamerica?

With the intensification of social stratification, differences between the ruling elite and the rest of the population decreased.

Populations of agrarian civilizations grew rapidly because of:

How do property rights differ in agricultural states from those in forager and tribal societies?

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are considered religions because their spiritual messages apply to all of humanity rather than just their own cultural history and legacy.

Since individualistic religious practices and beliefs were deemed as threatening to the state, one of the major functions of priests was to standardize religious beliefs and practices for the society.

State organized rituals that reinforced divine authority of the ruler are known as:

What are the current theories concerning Aztec warfare? Discuss the unique position human sacrifice held in the Aztec religion.

From a cross-cultural study, Jack Goody learned that bridewealth occurs more frequently in horticultural societies, whereas the dowry system is most frequently found in agricultural states. He further hypothesized that one function of the dowry system was to:

Large-scale, bureaucratic empires that organized and controlled wide-ranging territories included:

A civilization is a complex society that includes such things as an urban center, extensive food surpluses, a specialized division of labor, a method of record keeping, and monumental architecture.

If you were an archaeologist excavating a site, how would you determine if the site was an agricultural state (civilization) or not? What evidence would you look for, and what criteria would you use?

Why do you think marriages of the elite were frequently endogamous, while peasants generally married outside their extended families or large kin groups?

Except among the elite, polygyny was rare in agricultural states.

Ecclesiastical religions are limited to specific territories and are tied to a particular state organization, while universalistic religions espouse spiritual messages that apply to all of humanity.

The transition from foraging to food production:

According to Morton Fried, codified laws reinforce a system of inequity by keeping peasants subordinate while allowing those in power to have access to scarce resources. Service provides a different perspective. What is Service's perspective?

It has been argued that warfare and conquest were instrumental in the development of agricultural states. Do you agree with this view?

Low fertility rates in agricultural states ensured that the population did not grow too rapidly, outstripping the resources in the area.