Early Power Structures ...................................................................

LECTURE

If you ¿ nd infants that are buried with a lot of wealth around them,

then you know not only that there were wealthy people in that society,

but you know something else as well. You know that wealth could be

inherited. In other words, this is not just one individual who built

up their wealth during their lifetime; they could pass on their wealth

to their children. And that suggests the existence of institutionalized

hierarchies of wealth and power.

T

he previous lecture described the appearance of the ¿ rst tribute-
taking states and offered a simple de¿ nition of power. Now we ask:
How did the ¿ rst and simplest power structures evolve? The evidence
we need to answer this question comes mainly from archaeology and
anthropology. Archaeological research offers many indirect hints about early
power relations. The relative size and wealth of houses and burials hints
at inequalities of wealth and power. An example is the huge burial mount
of Arzhan in the Inner Asian steppes, dating from the 8th century B.C.E.
Such structures demonstrate the presence of a very signi¿ cant degree of
institutionalized power, enough to mobilize the resources of many hundreds
of people, some of whom were required to sacri¿ ce their own lives to honor a
dead leader. Rich infant burials demonstrate the presence of inherited wealth
and status. Evidence such as the terra-cotta army buried with the ¿ rst ruler of
a uni¿ ed China, or extensive forti¿ cations and walls, shows the presence of
armies and organized coercion. The stone ¿ gures (or ahu) of Easter Island,
or Britain’s Stonehenge represent more modest forms of “monumental
architecture.” Anthropological studies of modern “early Agrarian” societies,
such as those of Melanesia or the Amazon basin, suggest ways of interpreting
the archaeological evidence. But we must always remember that these are
modern models and we may be missing important differences between them
and the ¿ rst early Agrarian societies.

Why did power relations develop so rapidly in the early Agrarian era? The
key was population growth. As communities became larger, more productive,
and more interdependent, new problems arose, and also new forms of