Trade, Women, Class, and Society in Ancient Western Asia [and Comments and Reply]

Evolution and World-Systems: Complexity, Energy, and Form

“…Reciprocity among kin continued as always at the village level, and most of the village were, in fact, kin (Zagarell 1986). The bulk transfer of energy as firewood, food, and labor to the centers of regional administration was likely perceived much like a "tithe" in churches today -an act of self-sacrifice to the gods, who were theological symbols of the common good.…”

Urbanization before Cities: Lessons for Social Theory from the Evolution of Cities

“…It appears to have been the primary mechanism for organizing production and other social functions, a rudimentary gender-based division of labor translating into differing but not necessarily differentially empowered social roles. Judging from the presence of "goddess" figurines in domestic contexts, particularly in middens (ancient household waste dumps), it has been suggested that women held prominence in the household during the Neolithic period prior to the growth of large towns and cities (Zegarell 1986;Hodder 2006; see also Dever 2005). Similarly, the burial of primarily women beneath the homes of many Neolithic villages of the ninth through sixth millennia BCE in such varied sites as Jericho, Mureybet, and Catalhoyuk further implies a centrality of a "matriarchal" woman at the center of family life.…”

“…Given such a social structure -one that implies not a hardened social inequality but a relatively benign division of labor -the rise of urbanization as a system of trade and social relations also occurred in concert with associated changes in the organization of the oikos. Increasing trade over a period of at least two thousand years resulted in a higher prestige for men as this required contact outside the village (Zegarell 1986). Nevertheless, there is little reason to assume that such relations resulted in major differentials of power when rural villages were still organized around kinship where a matriarchal figure could have been most important.…”

Class Conflict in Ancient Mesopotamia: Between Knowledge of History and Historicising Knowledge

“…Nonetheless, the focus is on managerial decision taking rather than on investigating how the exploited might have reacted to such decisions. Zagarell's (1986) approach is one exception to this trend, but he focuses on time frames that mostly postdate the period I am concerned with. The views of the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people who used those ugly bowls have been entirely silenced.…”