Power and Its Origins .....................................................................

LECTURE

Power from below can exist without power from above. It doesn’t work

the other way around. And what that means is that to explain the slow

buildup to institutionalized power over 5,000 years, we must begin by

looking at forms of power from below.

I

f you study the past using written records you will soon encounter states,
empires, and civilizations. This is why the history of these immense,
highly institutionalized power structures has been one of the central
themes of historical scholarship and teaching from ancient times to the
present day, in all literate traditions. States created new forms of oppression
as well as new opportunities, and they would dominate the “later Agrarian”
era from the moment they ¿ rst appeared, about 5,000 years ago. Yet so far,
we have not talked much of such things because we have been describing
societies in which hierarchies were embedded in personal relationships or
the rules of kinship rather than in large institutional structures such as states.
Now we must try to explain the emergence of large, institutionalized power
structures. We will see that their roots lay in the early Agrarian era.

To clarify the nature of the problem, we need to be clear what states are.
So we will move forward to the later Agrarian era before returning to trace
the roots of institutionalized power in the early Agrarian era. Following
Eric Wolf, we will use the terminology of “tribute-taking” states. The
word “tribute” is used here to mean resources extracted through the threat
of organized force. Tribute-taking states often enjoy the genuine support
of many of their subjects because, though they can coerce, they can also
provide real services, just as farmers provide valuable services to their
domestic crops and animals. The great world historian William McNeill
has captured this ambiguous relationship well by describing tribute-taking
states as “macroparasites.” Like parasites, they may hurt their prey, but they
must also protect their prey if they are to survive. Nevertheless, the de¿ ning
quality of tribute-taking states is the ability, when necessary, to impose their
will by force.