Origins of the First States in the World | World History Project
Summary
TLDR本视频讨论了世界历史上早期国家的发展。Trevor Getz教授与两位世界历史学家探讨了国家的定义及其特征。他们讨论了国家通常具有的复杂社会结构、城市、世袭君主制等特征。通过比较苏美尔城邦和密西西比河谷的密西西比文化,展示了不同地区早期国家形成的例子。此外,讨论了国家形成的两种理论:强制性理论和整合性理论,以及集体想象在国家形成中的作用。
Takeaways
- 🏛️ 国家是一个复杂的政治、社会、经济结构,大约在5000年前在世界历史上相对较近的时期发展起来。
- 🌏 国家通常首先在城市中发展,但并非总是如此,它们可能具有城市、复杂的社会结构和世袭君主制等特征。
- 📚 一些历史学家定义国家具有书写、纪念性建筑和世袭君主制等特征,但这种定义可能限制了对国家替代形式的思考。
- 🏙️ 国家比城市或其他早期形式具有更大更复杂的政治和社会组织形式,但它们建立在这些早期形式之上。
- 🌱 苏美尔城邦被认为是世界上最早的国家之一,位于美索不达米亚南部,拥有大规模的灌溉系统。
- 🏰 密西西比河谷的密西西比人约在1000年前发展出最早的国家,他们建造了巨大的平顶金字塔和复杂的贸易关系。
- 🤝 政治科学家对国家的兴起有两种理论:强制性理论和整合性理论,前者认为人们被迫加入国家,后者认为人们共同努力建立国家。
- 💭 尤瓦尔·赫拉利提出集体想象是国家诞生的基础,认为国家是大规模合作网络。
- 🔗 集体想象意味着人们需要接受国家的概念,通过共享文化、历史、语言和文化活动来建立连接感。
- 🏡 人们可能会因为不想失去邻居的尊重或想要与他们相处融洽而遵守规则和纳税,这显示了集体想象的巨大力量。
- 🎉 讨论国家起源的世界历史是一个令人难以置信的讨论,提供了关于早期国家发展的深刻见解。
Q & A
什么是国家?
-国家是一个复杂的政治、社会、经济结构,它在世界历史上相对较近时期发展起来,大约在5000年前。国家通常以城市为中心,具有更复杂的社会结构,几乎世界上所有的国家都是由世袭王朝统治的。
国家通常具有哪些特征?
-国家通常具有城市、复杂的社会结构、世袭君主制、书写系统和纪念性建筑等特征,但并非所有国家都具备这些特征。
世界上最早的国家是在哪个地区形成的?
-世界上最早的国家通常认为是在美索不达米亚南部,即苏美尔城邦,它是一个围绕城市的小型国家。
苏美尔城邦是如何形成的?
-苏美尔城邦通过大规模的灌溉系统逐渐控制了周边的农村地区,并通过军事征服和人口迁移实现了扩张。
密西西比河流域最早的国家是什么时候形成的?
-在密西西比河流域,最早的国家大约在1000年前形成,主要的两个城市是阿拉巴马州的Moundville和伊利诺伊州的Cahokia。
密西西比流域的土著美国国家有哪些特点?
-这些土著美国国家建造了巨大的平顶金字塔和仪式结构,拥有复杂的贸易关系,经济体系发达,例如Moundville社区有约1万人,其中约1000人居住在城墙内。
政治科学家关于国家兴起的两种理论是什么?
-政治科学家有两种关于国家兴起的理论:一种是强制性理论,认为人们通常被迫加入国家;另一种是整合性理论,认为人们共同努力建立国家。
Yuval Harari所说的集体想象是什么?
-Yuval Harari认为集体想象是国家诞生的基础,即人们需要接受国家的概念,认为他们在国家中有某种联系,共享文化、历史、语言和文化活动。
为什么集体想象对于国家的有效运作是必要的?
-集体想象让人们接受国家的概念,同意遵守法律和缴纳所需的税款,这对于建立一个有效运作的国家是必要的。
人们为什么会因为集体想象而遵守规则和法律?
-人们遵守规则和法律,不仅是因为有人强迫他们这么做,而是因为他们不想让周围的人对他们有不好的看法,他们想要得到邻居的尊重和认可。
这段讨论的主要观点是什么?
-这段讨论主要探讨了国家的定义、特征、起源以及国家兴起的两种理论,以及集体想象在国家形成中的重要性。
Outlines
🏛️ 国家的定义与起源
本段讨论了国家的概念和特征。特雷弗·格茨教授与两位世界历史学家探讨了早期国家的发展。国家是政治、社会、经济等复杂结构,大约5000年前在世界历史上较晚时期出现,首先在美索不达米亚南部发展。国家通常有城市,具有复杂的社会结构,几乎由世袭王朝统治,有些有文字记录,大多数有其他形式的记录。讨论还涉及了国家可能具备的其他特征,以及替代国家形式的社会组织形式。
🌏 世界各地的早期国家案例
本段中,专家们分别提供了他们专业领域内早期国家的例子。苏美尔城邦被认为是世界上最早的国家之一,具有大规模灌溉系统,并通过军事征服和人口迁移扩展到周边地区。另一位专家讨论了密西西比河谷和墨西哥湾南部地区大约1000年前出现的国家,特别是密西西比人的两个主要城市:阿拉巴马州的Moundville和伊利诺伊州的Cahokia。这些是北美原住民国家,拥有巨大的平顶金字塔和复杂的贸易关系。
🤝 国家形成的两种理论
政治科学家提出了两种关于国家崛起的理论:强制性理论和整合性理论。强制性理论认为人们被迫加入国家,而整合性理论则认为人们共同努力建立国家。专家认为两种模型都应考虑在内,因为不同社会的城市化路径不同,有些国家可能是出于集体需求而出现的,如干旱或食物短缺,这可能导致需要一个强有力的领导者来整合劳动力并解决这些问题。但随着世袭君主制的传承,国家通常变得更加强制性。
🎭 集体想象与国家认同
尤瓦尔·哈拉瑞教授提出集体想象是国家诞生的基础,认为国家是大规模合作网络。集体想象意味着人们需要接受国家的概念,以便其运作。这涉及到共享文化、历史、语言和文化活动,从而创造出一种连接的想象。专家认为,没有大多数人对国家概念的接受和认同,国家就无法有效运作。人们可能会因为邻居的看法、尊重或害怕而遵守规则和纳税,这种社会压力在今天仍然具有巨大影响力。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡国家
💡城市
💡社会结构
💡世袭王朝
💡书写
💡纪念碑式建筑
💡灌溉
💡军事征服
💡集体想象
💡整合理论
💡强制理论
💡密西西比文化
Highlights
特雷弗·格茨教授提出,国家是一个复杂的政治、社会、经济结构,是世界历史上相对较近才发展起来的概念。
国家通常首先在南部美索不达米亚发展,大约5000年前,以城市为中心。
一些历史学家认为国家具有特定特征,如文字、纪念性建筑和世袭君主制。
格茨教授认为,如果仅以这些特征定义国家,我们无法想象国家之外的社会组织形式。
国家通常拥有城市、更复杂的社会结构,并且几乎所有国家都由世袭王朝统治。
一些国家拥有文字,而大多数国家拥有其他形式的记录方式。
国家是比城市或之前其他形式更庞大、更复杂的政治和社会组织形式。
格茨教授询问其他专家,他们认为哪些社区是他们研究领域中最早的国家之一。
世界历史学家普遍认为,世界上最早的国家是苏美尔城邦,位于南部美索不达米亚。
苏美尔城邦通过大规模灌溉、军事征服和人口迁移逐渐控制了周边乡村。
威洛比教授研究的密西西比河流域,大约1000年前出现了最早的国家。
密西西比文化的主要城市包括阿拉巴马州的Moundville和伊利诺伊州的Cahokia。
这些是北美土著国家,他们建造了巨大的平顶金字塔和仪式结构。
密西西比文化拥有复杂的贸易关系,从五大湖地区延伸到墨西哥湾。
Moundville社区约有10000人,其中约1000人居住在城墙内的城市中心。
政治学家关于国家兴起有两种理论:强制性理论和整合性理论。
威洛比教授认为,社会走向城市化的道路不同,一些国家可能是出于集体需求而形成的。
国家可能因世代更替而变得更加强制性,一些君主更慷慨和有能力,而另一些则通过奴役和威胁维持权力。
尤瓦尔·哈拉瑞教授认为,集体想象是国家诞生的基础,国家是大规模合作网络。
威洛比教授解释了集体想象的含义,即人们需要接受国家的概念,以便其有效运作。
人们通过共享文化、历史、语言和文化活动,形成了对国家的想象和联系。
哈拉瑞的观点强调了人们接受国家概念的重要性,以及他们遵守法律和纳税的意愿。
威洛比教授讨论了集体想象在现代社会中的力量,以及人们如何因社会期望而采取行动。
Transcripts
(music playing)
Hello, my name is Trevor Getz.
I'm a professor of history
at San Francisco State University
and I am here with two leading world historians
to talk about the development
of the early state in world history.
So, let's begin with a simple question
that's maybe quite complex.
What is a state?
What are the characteristics of those societies
that we call states?
A state is a complex
political, social, economic, and everything structure
that developed in world history relatively recently
in the grand scheme of world history,
meaning 5,000 years ago or so.
Developed first in southern Mesopotamia,
usually people think of the first states around a city.
States usually have cities although not always.
Some historians define states
as having certain features, like writing
and monumental architecture, and hereditary monarchy.
But I think if we were to define states in that manner,
then we don't really have the ability
to think of alternatives to states,
alternative forms of social organization.
So there are many things that states usually have
although not every single one of them has it.
Cities is one of them.
They have more complex social structures.
Almost all of the states of the world, until very recently,
have been ruled by heredity dynasties.
Some states have writing
and most of them have other forms of recordkeeping.
So they're are a larger and more complex form
of political and social organization
than cities or other kinds of things that preceded them,
but they build on those earlier forms.
I know that historians specialize,
and you're both specialists.
Can you give an example from your area of specialization
of a community that you think
was one of the first states in that region?
What made it a state, to your mind?
Well, I think most world historians would say
the very first state in the world,
which we might call a city-state-- in other words,
it's a small state around a city-- is in Sumer.
So what is southern Mesopotamia,
the southern Tigris and Euphrates valley,
the city-state of Sumer-- it's a city,
it has large-scale irrigation.
And gradually it took over through military conquest
and through just sort of people moving in and out,
it took over the surrounding countryside.
WILLOUGHBY: My area of study
is the Gulf South and the Mississippi Valley.
And states emerged in that region
in a different time period
than some of the earliest states in Mesopotamia,
or South Asia or even South America.
So, in the Mississippi Valley,
it was about a 1,000 years ago, or so
that the earliest states developed.
The Mississippian peoples, two of the main cities
were Moundville, in what's now Alabama,
close to Tuscaloosa,
and then there's Cahokia in Illinois.
And these were Native American states.
They built huge flat-top pyramids,
ceremonial structures.
They had complex trade relationships,
extending from the Great Lakes region
all the way to the Gulf of Mexico,
to the eastern United States
to even a little bit west of the Mississippi River.
They had a very complex economy.
Moundville, for example,
there was a community of 10,000 people,
about a 1,000 people living within the city center,
within the walled city, but it was based on
all of the agricultural and other artisanal work
of people that lived outside of the city proper.
In general, political scientists have two theories
about the rise of the state.
The first is coercive theories that say that people
are generally forced into joining states.
And the other is integrative theories that suggest
that people worked together to build states.
Which model makes more sense to you?
WILLOUGHBY: I think it's important
to keep both models in mind.
Societies had different paths towards urbanization.
And some states emerged out of a collective necessity,
some sort of, maybe drought, or food shortage
that might have led to the need for a strong leader
who could consolidate labor
and solve those kinds of problems.
So there could be a communal aspect in that way,
but usually states devolve into being more coercive,
as the generations of hereditary monarchs,
some of them are more generous and competent
and others really are coercive
and maintain their power through enslaving people
and threatening people with violence or taxes.
Now, there's a professor named Yuval Harari
who argues that something called collective imagination
is the basis of the birth of the state.
Harari even writes that states
are mass cooperation networks.
What does he mean by collective imagination?
WILLOUGHBY: People need to buy into the idea of the state
in order for it to work.
So, to imagine that in a state
people are connected to one another,
that they have some sort of shared culture,
and perhaps a shared history, a shared language,
shared cultural activities.
Perhaps that would create this imagined idea of connectivity.
So, in that way, I think Harari is right,
that without this level of buying in
and this acceptance of the idea of the state
by the majority of the population
kind of succumbing to the state
and agreeing to follow the laws and pay the taxes required,
I think that that's definitely a necessary component
in order to have an effective functioning state.
It might simply be,
"I'm going to do this because I think...
"because my neighbors will think it's a good idea.
"And I kind of like my neighbors or I'm afraid of my neighbors
or I want their respect, so I will do this."
And this, again, this is something
that has enormous power right now.
We do things, certain things,
not because someone is standing over us to force us to do them,
but because we don't want our neighbors to think badly of us.
So, we mow our lawn even if we don't really feel
like mowing our lawn.
Or we do something, like where we shovel our walks,
or we do certain kinds of things... we keep our houses up.
It's a good idea to do this,
but also we don't want to lose face and status
with people around us,
because we want to kind of get along with them.
So I think that that's...
and sort of what, I think, he means by that.
Thanks for joining me to talk about
the origins of states in world history.
I think this was a really incredible discussion.
(music playing)
Browse More Related Video
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5gKI3trrPf8/hq720.jpg)
How Farming Led to the Formation of States | World History Project
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IjIJ6o_ITL8/hq720.jpg)
【小岛浪吹】一套视频讲清楚所有的西藏问题:问题的起点
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hi0Mc09zBbk/hq720.jpg?v=63469b13)
國家的千年大歷史:國家是怎麼誕生的?統治者最怕人民做出...?進擊的巨人背後的國家理論?國家起源論新觀點,改寫人類千年文明史/ 書來面對EP33《反穀》 by James Scott
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XYT9X7MAiw4/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCIAKENAF8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-CYAC0AWKAgwIABABGGUgVShKMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDv8znlv1Cua_DGjnyKum0Lr7mWkw)
【会员翻牌】第44期:佛朗哥算窃国者还是护国公?220720
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M4JJU5-H_Xo/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCIAKENAF8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-CYAC0AWKAgwIABABGCwgSCh_MA8=&rs=AOn4CLDgrGoN5AVe9i04seMPlj1hgHkgyg)
Smooth Operator: Streamlining North American Supply Chains
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lvfEq7XIgd4/hq720.jpg)
Visibility & Security: Critical Issues in Supply Chain Today
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)