| The Evolution of Urban Society: Early Mesopotamia and Prehispanic Mexico Contributor(s): Adams, Robert MCC (Author) |
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ISBN: 0202308189 ISBN-13: 9780202308180 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $52.20 Product Type: Paperback Published: June 2005 Annotation: The Evolution of Urban Society is concerned with the presentation and analysis of regularities in the two best-documented examples of early, independent urban society: Mesopotamia and central Mexico. It provides a systematic comparison of institutional forms and trends of growth that are to be found in both of them. Adams shows why the study of societal evolution is so significant, and why it has remained a durable and attractive anthropological focus of interest. The Evolution of Urban Society remains required reading for students of anthropology, ethnography, ancient civilizations, and world history. As Elizabeth Carter noted in Science, this volume aset the agenda for contemporary research into early urbanism in the [Mesopotamian] region.a |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Minority Studies - History | Civilization - Social Science | Anthropology - General |
| Dewey: 935 |
| LCCN: 2006272603 |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 6.38" W x 9.04" (0.74 lbs) 204 pages |
| Themes: - Demographic Orientation - Urban - Cultural Region - Middle East |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Evolution of Urban Societyis concerned with the presentation and analysis of regularities in the two best-documented examples of early, independent urban society: Mesopotamia and central Mexico. It provides a systematic comparison of institutional forms and trends of growth that are to be found in both of them. Emphasizing basic similarities in structure rather than the many acknowledged formal features by which each culture is rendered distinguishable from all others, it demonstrates that both societies can usefully be regarded as variants of a single process.Generalizing, comparative analyses of the origins of ancient civilizations in early anthropological studies emphasized the diversity of their cultures rather than their similarities. As this volume illustrates, early societies, in actuality, provide a significant example of broad regularities in human behavior. The emergence of states - of stratified, politically organized societies based upon a complex division of labor - is one of those great transformations that have punctuated human civilization. Adams shows why the study of societal evolution is so significant, and why it has remained a durable and attractive anthropological focus of interest.Originally published in 1966, The Evolution of Urban Society is based on a series of lectures at the University of Rochester in honor of the esteemed anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan. It remains required reading for students of anthropology, ethnography, ancient civilizations, and world history. As Elizabeth Carter noted in Science at the time: "Adams's The Evolution of Urban Society set the agenda for contemporary research into early urbanism in the Mesopotamian] region." |
Contributor Bio(s): Adams, Robert MCC: - Robert McC. Adams, until his retirement in 1994, was the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He is presently adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego, and has also served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, in its Oriental Institute and Department of Anthropology. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Land Behind Baghdad and Paths of Fire: An Anthropologist's Inquiry into Western Society. In 1996, Adams was recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for American Archaeology. |