Lecture 1-2: From Hunter Gatherers to Sedentary Societies

Question 1

Political order: main approaches

Answer 1

Functionalism
Institutionalism
Marxism

Question 2

North: origins of institutions

Answer 2

Emerge of political institutions led to different outcomes: similar societies => different organisation

Question 3

North: why did institutions emerge

Answer 3

cooperation and interaction on a large scale is difficult to sustain with informal means (trust) => institutions emerge because of problems of economic exchange

Question 4

North: institutions def

Answer 4

rules of the game whose goal is to make multi-agent and distant interactions possible

Question 5

Quality of institutions: outcome AJR trade Atlantic

Answer 5

Opening of trade routes of the Atlantic caused economic and technological shock for countries with direct access to Atlantic

Question 6

Why is England growing more than Portugal after 1500

Answer 6

2 ingredients to create opportunity for growth: good technological shock and initial presence of good and working institutions. Those with initially less absolutist institutions benefitted more (merchants had the tools to make their interests favoured by institutions)

Question 7

The case of Poland

Answer 7

Polish institutions represented the aristocracy, who were interested in protecting their land privilege. Good institutions => bad outcomes

Question 8

Why do bad institutions persist

Answer 8

institutions do not last in time because they are good but because they represent the interests of the relevant actors. Ex: slavery

Question 9

Institutions as equilibria Greif

Answer 9

Institutions should not be interpreted as the rules of the game we select, but as the equilibrium of the game we arrive at after a bargaining process

Question 10

Diamond: 4 categories to describe evolution

Answer 10

bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states

Question 11

Bands: mode of production, conflict resolution, stratification, leadership

Answer 11

hunting and foraging, no land use, no animals/plants domestication, similar technologies. Members tied by kinship, no incentive to deviate. Solved through hierarchical and kinship relationships. No stratification but yes leadership: source of differentiation are age and skills => not tangible or transmissible so no stratification

Question 12

Shift from bands to tribes

Answer 12

from mobile to sedentary habits, change in food production, clumped resources which provide potential for mobility reduction, increase in pop density and economic specialisationTech+environment => MOP => pop size and density => Political org

Question 13

Tribes: difference with bands

Answer 13

Social structure changed: more clans could be sustained (predictable outcomes+sedentary habits), more formal stratification, political hierarchy emerged (big-man) but still not transmitted

Question 14

Shift from tribes to chiefdoms

Answer 14

Agricultural revolution: from foraging to farming.

Question 15

Clumped resources provide potential for:

Answer 15

mobility reduction, increase in pop density and economic specialisation

Question 16

Consequences of agricultural revolution

Answer 16

Agricultural revolution: from foraging to farming. Change the way they use resources. domestication of animals and plants more productive crops, easier to harvest, resistance to adverse conditions, increase in pop and pop density, urbanisation, labor specialisation, further technological innovation. Emergence of large groups, need for new institutions to allow for cooperation within and across tribes. Tech+environment => MOP => Political org => pop size and density

Question 17

was the agricultural revolution a net improvement for pop

Answer 17

power diet and productivity, but resilience to climate variation and store food

Question 18

Chiefdoms

Answer 18

Larger, fully sedentary, farming, regular creation of surplus which allowed for labor diversification and specialisation. Centralised authority, from reciprocal to redistributive exchange.

Question 19

how did chiefdoms survive

Answer 19

disarm the pop and arm the elite
redistribute output to make people happy in popular ways
use monopoly on force to promote happiness
create ideology/religion to reinforce social cohesion and justify central authority and wealth transfer

Question 20

States difference with chiefdoms

Answer 20

larger scale: cities
effectiveness in monopoly over use of force
development of bureaucratic apparatuses
passage of political power
economic system: high specialisation, redistribution through taxes and tributes, surplus labor appropriation: corvee and slavery. state was viable through: written laws, religious org and political power, decline of kinship social structure: formalised stratification