standard situation was restricted literacy, in which only a small group
of specialists handled written documents. In many places, beginning
with the Sumerian Middle East and Egypt as well as China, and then
extending to most Eurasiatic states, such literate specialists were also
involved in the production of religious texts.
In all these places literacy appeared in complex states, in polities
where people's decisions were made in the context of large networks
and institutions. So literacy and a complex social organization
spawned another important development—that of stable associations
of religious specialists. This happened in the Middle East, in Egypt, in
India and China and finally in all Eurasiatic societies. There were [275]
written religious texts, ritual prescriptions, lists and tables of moral
prescriptions and prohibitions because religious specialists were trans-
formed into an organized social group, akin to a corporationorguild.
This social transformation had profound effects on the nature and
organization of the concepts that such specialists produced and dif-
fused.^6
A religious guild is a group that derives its livelihood, influence and
power from the fact that it provides particular services,in particular the
performance of rituals. Its members can be compared to other special-
ized groups, such as craftsmen. In a city-state or even an empire,
craftsmen can afford to spend most of their time away from subsis-
tence activities like tending herds and growing food, because they pro-
vide goods and services and receive some payment for these.
Such groups often try to control the market for their services.
Throughout history, guilds and other groups of craftsmen and special-
ists have tried to establish common prices and common standards and
to stop non-guild members from delivering comparable services. By
establishing a quasi monopoly, they make sure that all custom comes
their way. By maintaining common prices and common standards,
they make it difficult for a particularly skilled or efficient member to
undersell the others. So most people pay a small price for being mem-
bers of a group that guarantees a minimal share of the market to each
of its members.
One might think that the services provided by religious scholars—
for example, ritual performance and scriptural knowledge—are essen-
tially different from making shoes or tanning leather. But this is pre-
cisely what makes the general tensions associated with imperfect
markets even more relevant. For religious goods and services are
indeed different, but in a way that makes the priests' position much
WHYDOCTRINES, EXCLUSION AND VIOLENCE?