At the Origins of Politics: Formation and Growth of the State in Syro-Mesopotamia

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Synopsis
This volume, now available in English, explores how Mesopotamia’s urban revolution in the late fourth millennium B.C. shaped a new mentality, leading to new forms of social interaction, and to the development of the state, its laws and its religion to consolidate new managerial hierarchies in the region.How is it that the phenomenon of the state, a society structured along lines of power that frame individuals in a new supra-organism, suddenly came into being during the fourth millennium B.C.? In this book, Buccellati explores the emergence of statehood and power structures in ancient Mesopotamia against the background of the long prehistoric period. It was the arena in which the earliest cities and states were born and that offers us the first and richest documentation of the development of political life in antiquity. This book provides rich documentation of the causes that led to the formation of the territorial state, tracing its evolution from city-states to universal empires from ca 3500 B.C. to 500 B.C. At the same time, it examines the tension between individual rights and supra-personal systems of power during this period and explores new forms of social interaction that coincided with the economic dimension of the urban revolution. This paradigmatic history, newly translated into English for Anglophone readers, offers a key to understanding modern political forms and their transformations.At the Origins of Politics provides a thorough examination of the development of the state in ancient Mesopotamia, suitable for students, scholars, and researchers working on Near Eastern history and society, and ancient societies and politics more broadly.
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9781040133934
Related ISBNs:
9780367256708, 9780367256692, 9781040133880, 9780429289002
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Editoriale Jaca Book Srl, Milano
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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