{"id":6167,"date":"2023-03-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=6167"},"modified":"2022-12-26T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T15:07:40","slug":"looking-at-david-graeber-and-david-wengrows-chapter-2021-why-the-state-has-no-originpart-7-of-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=6167","title":{"rendered":"Looking at David Graeber and David Wengrow&#8217;s Chapter (2021) &#8220;Why The State Has No Origin&#8221;(Part 7 of 13)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0222 Starting around 3500 B.C., during the proto-dynastic period of Egypt, petty monarchs are afforded fine burials all along the Nile Valley.&nbsp;&nbsp;These petty kings give every indication of maintaining military and administrative control in their respective territories.&nbsp;&nbsp;Graeber and Wengrow ask (more or less), &#8220;How do we get from these monarchs to the massive agrarian bureaucracy of First Dynastic Egypt?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0223 Could it be about death?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The authors imagine debates about&nbsp;<em>the responsibilities of the living to the dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is&nbsp;<em>an institutional diagram<\/em>&nbsp;for each little kingdom along the Nile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide34.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide34.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide34.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide34-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 34<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0224 The dyadic actuality<sub>2a<\/sub>&nbsp;consists in two contiguous real elements, the living (people) and the dead (ruler).&nbsp;&nbsp;The contiguity is placed in brackets.&nbsp;&nbsp;The brackets contain a modern term, &#8220;responsibility&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I must keep in mind that the term, &#8220;responsibility&#8221;, is an explicit abstraction.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The ancient substance in the brackets<\/em>&nbsp;is not an explicit abstraction.&nbsp;&nbsp;The ancient substance arises in various questions.&nbsp;&nbsp;Does the dead hunger?&nbsp;&nbsp;Does the dead thirst?&nbsp;&nbsp;The answer is apparent.&nbsp;&nbsp;Grave goods include bread and pots of fermented wheat beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0225 Two innovations, one agricultural and one ceremonial, reinforce one another.&nbsp;&nbsp;Agricultural improvements include ploughs and oxen, introduced around 3000 B.C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Ceremonial innovations include networks of obligations and debts, centered around the provisioning of the dead.&nbsp;&nbsp;Facilities dedicated to baking and brewing appear, first, alongside cemeteries, then later, near palaces and grand tombs.&nbsp;&nbsp;By the start of the First Dynastic (around 2500 B.C.), bread and beer are manufactured on an industrial scale, enough to supply seasonal armies of corvee laborers working on royal constructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0226 The transition from proto-dynastic to First Dynastic differentiates the above institution into the Egyptian state<sub>2bC<\/sub>and the people&#8217;s &#8220;religious&#8221; obligation to the afterlife<sub>2aC<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The conundrum about the local ruler<sub>3aC<\/sub>&nbsp;blossoms into separate social levels for the Pharoah<sub>3bC<\/sub>&nbsp;and the people<sub>3aC<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Order<sub>1bC<\/sub>&nbsp;arises from righteousness<sub>1aC<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide35.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide35.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide35.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Slide35-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 35<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0227 Needless to say, the Pharaoh&#8217;s order<sub>1b<\/sub>&nbsp;does not reduce to the actuality of the term, &#8220;domination&#8221;<sub>2a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0222 Starting around 3500 B.C., during the proto-dynastic period of Egypt, petty monarchs are afforded fine burials all along the Nile Valley.&nbsp;&nbsp;These petty kings give every indication of maintaining military and administrative control in their respective territories.&nbsp;&nbsp;Graeber and Wengrow ask (more or less), &#8220;How do we get from these monarchs to the massive agrarian bureaucracy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intimations-of-political-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at David Graeber and David Wengrow&#039;s Chapter (2021) &quot;Why The State Has No Origin&quot;(Part 7 of 13) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=6167\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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