Eastern type of civilization. Civilizations of the ancient east

Eastern type of civilization(eastern civilization) - historically the first type of civilization, formed by the 3rd millennium BC. in the Ancient East: in Ancient India, China, Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt. The characteristic features of Eastern civilization are: 1. Traditionalism - focus on the reproduction of established forms of lifestyle and social structures. 2. Low mobility and poor diversity of all forms of human life. 3. In the worldview plan, the idea of ​​​​the complete lack of freedom of a person, the predetermination of all actions and deeds by forces of nature, society, gods, etc. independent of him. 4. Moral and volitional orientation is not towards knowledge and transformation of the world, but towards contemplation, serenity, mystical unity with nature, focus on inner spiritual life. 5. Public life is built on the principles of collectivism. 6. Political organization life in eastern civilizations occurs in the form of despotism, in which the absolute predominance of the state over society is exercised. 7. The economic basis of life in eastern civilizations is corporate and state forms of ownership, and the main method of management is coercion.

General characteristics of the civilizations of the Ancient East

The Ancient East became the cradle of modern civilization. Here the first states, the first cities, writing, stone architecture, world religions and much more appeared, without which it is impossible to imagine the current human community. The first states arose in the valleys of large rivers. Agriculture in these areas was very productive, but this required irrigation work - drainage, irrigation, construction of dams and maintaining the entire irrigation system in order. The community alone could not cope with this. There was a growing need to unite all communities under the control of a single state.

For the first time, this happens in two places at once, independently of each other - in Mesopotamia (the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and Egypt at the end of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. Later, the state arose in India, in the Indus River valley, and at the turn III-II thousand. BC. - in China. These civilizations received the name river civilizations in science.

The most important center of ancient statehood was the region of Mesopotamia. Unlike other civilizations, Mesopotamia was open to all migrations and trends. From here trade routes opened and innovations spread to other lands. The civilization of Mesopotamia continuously expanded and involved new peoples, while other civilizations were more closed. Thanks to this, West Asia is gradually becoming a flagship in socio-economic development. Here the potter's wheel and wheel, bronze and iron metallurgy, the war chariot and new forms of writing appear. Scientists trace the influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt and the civilization of ancient India.

Farmers settled Mesopotamia in the 8th millennium BC. Gradually they learned to drain wetlands. In the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates there is no stone, forests, or metals, but they are very rich in grain. Residents of Mesopotamia exchanged grain for items missing from the household in the process of trading with neighbors. Stone and wood were replaced by clay. They built houses from clay, made various items household items, they wrote on clay tables.

At the end of the 4th millennium BC. Several political centers arose in the Southern Mesopotamia, which united into the state of Sumer. Throughout its ancient history, the Mesopotamia region was the scene of a fierce struggle, during which power was seized by a city or conquerors who came from outside. From the 2nd millennium BC The city of Babylon begins to play a leading role in the region, becoming a powerful power under King Hammurabi. Then Assyria strengthens, which from the XIV to the VII centuries. BC. was one of the leading states of Mesopotamia. After the falls Assyrian power Babylon strengthens again - the Neo-Babylonian kingdom arises. The Persians - immigrants from the territory of modern Iran - managed to conquer Babylonia in the 6th century. BC. found the huge Persian kingdom.

The ancient east became the cradle of modern civilization. The first states, the first cities, writing, stone architecture, and world religions appeared here.

The first states arose in river valleys. Agriculture in the ancient east was very productive, but this required irrigation systems (drainage, irrigation). Large amounts of labor were required to build irrigation systems. One community could not cope with such work, and there was a need to unite communities under the control of a single state. For the first time this happens in Mesopotamia (Tigris River, Euphrates River), Egypt (Nile River) at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Later, states emerged in India and China; these civilizations were called river civilizations.
  Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia). Unlike other civilizations, it was an open state. Many trade routes passed through Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was constantly expanding, involving new cities, while other civilizations were more closed. Here appeared: a potter's wheel, a wheel, bronze and iron metallurgy, a war chariot, and new forms of writing. Farmers settled Mesopotamia in the 8th millennium BC. Gradually they learned to drain wetlands.
   Mesopotamia was rich in grain. Residents exchanged grain for missing items on the farm. Clay replaced stone and wood. People wrote on clay tablets. At the end of the 4th millennium BC, in the southern Mesopotamia, the state of Sumer arose.
   In the 2nd millennium BC, the importance of Babylon, where King Hammurabi ruled, increased. From the 14th to the 7th century BC, Assyria strengthened, and it was replaced by the Neo-Babylonian state. In the 6th century BC, Babylon was conquered by the Persian kingdom.
  Egypt. It was located in the valley of the Nile River, which was divided into upper and lower. The first state associations were called nomes. As a result of a long struggle, upper Egypt annexed lower Egypt. In Egypt the position of the priesthood was strong.
  China. Formed in the valley of the Yellow River. The Yellow River often changed its course and flooded vast areas. At the head of the state was a deified ruler. In China there was total control over the population, the population performed heavy duties.

  
  India. It developed in the Indus River valley. The largest irrigation systems and big cities. Crafts were at a high level of development; sewer systems. The highest governing body was the Parshiat - Brahmins - the King. In the second half of the millennium BC, India was invaded by the Aryan tribes who inhabited the Ganges River. They installed the Varna system.

Anthropology, ethnography, mythology about the ancient past of man.

The problem of human origin has constantly interested people. There has long been a continuous struggle on this issue between idealists and materialists. There are many theories explaining how man appeared and how he developed.

Even at the beginning of the 19th century, people believed that their appearance remained unchanged since the advent of man. Of course, it was known that different peoples differ from each other in culture, way of life, and customs. But they were all considered the descendants of the first man and the first woman who were created by the gods, regardless of whether they were gods of Christians, Muslims or followers of the teachings of Buddha. When human bones that differed from modern ones were found during excavations, they were considered the remains of especially strong people or, conversely, sick people. In the 40s bones of one of the ancestors were found in 19th century Germany modern man Neanderthal, who were mistaken for the remains of a Russian Cossack, a participant in the Napoleonic wars, and one respectable scientist said that these were the bones of a sick old man, who had also been hit on the head several times.

In 1859, Charles Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” was published, which did not talk about the origin of man, but suggested that man, like other living beings, could also change, develop from more simple shapes to more complex ones. From this moment on, the struggle begins between those who believed that man descended from apes and their opponents. Of course, we were not talking about gorillas, chimpanzees or orangutans known to us, but about some extinct species, ancestors common to humans and monkeys.

From the point of view of anthropology, there are three signs, the development of which shows that we are dealing with a person:
bipedalism
hand development
volume and structure of the brain.

These signs do not appear simultaneously, but sequentially, in the process of evolution. For example, in comparison with the improvement of upright walking, the development of the hand was delayed. It is assumed that the formation of a type of brush close to the modern one coincides with the appearance of hand axes; A noticeable increase in brain mass also dates back to this time.

It is unknown where and when the evolution of apes, which lasted many millions of years, led to the emergence of humans. Most likely this happened in Africa. 3.5 - 1.8 million years ago, creatures called Australopithecus - southern monkeys - already roamed its steppes. From the point of view of sociology, one of the most important signs of a person is the manufacture of tools. According to the latest data, the systematic production of tools begins 2,600,000 years ago. In places where the remains of australopithecines were found, long bones and horns of antelopes are found, which have traces of processing and were used as percussion tools. Australopithecines were terrestrial creatures with a developed hand. The average volume of their brain was more than 500 cm3, which in relation to body weight significantly exceeds the corresponding indicators of modern apes. It is generally accepted that Australopithecines were the main original species of human origin.

In 1960, the English paleontologist L. Leakey discovered the bones of an ancient man along with a number of stone tools in the Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. This species was named "Homo habilis" ("handy man"). Homo habilis walked on legs; their average brain volume was approx. 650 cm3, and his hands were adapted not only to hold a stick or stone, but also to make tools. The tools found during excavations are not repeated - therefore, Homo habilis did not yet know how to teach the next generations. These ancient people did not yet know how to speak; like monkeys, they gave signals to each other with cries, gestures, and grimaces. In addition to plant foods, they ate the meat of animals, which they probably hunted.

About 1 million years ago, a new species appeared - “Homo erectus” (“straightened man”), Pithecanthropus, that is, an ape-man, whose remains were first discovered on the island of Java, and then in many areas of Africa, Asia and Europe. This creature still resembled its animal ancestors. It was covered with fur, had a low forehead and strongly protruding brow ridges. But the size of his brain was already quite large (up to 860 cm3), approaching the size of the brain of a modern person. The hands were better developed. At this time, labor tools acquire stable forms, are distinguished by the quality of their workmanship, and have a functional orientation. Among these tools are large axes, scrapers, and stone cutters. They could chop, cut, plan, dig, kill animals, skin them, and butcher carcasses. The development of labor skills, the ability to think, and plan their activities allowed these people to adapt to life in different climatic conditions. They lived in the cold regions of Northern China and Europe, in the tropics of the island of Java, and in the Steppes of Africa. Pithecanthropus chinensis - Sinanthropus, discovered in a cave near Beijing, had a brain volume on average of up to 1200 cm3. Sinanthropus lived in caves and already systematically used fire. In the caves where Sinanthropus lived, fire pits of enormous thickness were discovered (perhaps the camps had been in one place for thousands of years). Pithecanthropus already knew how to speak. And yet, both their physical development and the development of culture proceeded very slowly: Pithecanthropus, like the tools they created, existed almost unchanged for about a million years.

During the existence of Homo erectus, the Ice Age began. Due to the formation of glaciers, the level of the World Ocean dropped, and land “bridges” arose between land areas previously separated by water, along which people were able to penetrate, for example, to the already mentioned island of Java.

About 250 thousand years ago, an ancient variety of Homo sapiens (“reasonable man”) appeared - the Neanderthal (named after the German Neanderthal Valley, where his remains were first discovered). He no longer differed much from a modern person, although he was roughly built, had a low forehead and a sloping chin. But these people were better able to adapt to the harsh natural conditions of the Ice Age than their predecessors, the Pithecanthropus, who eventually became extinct.

Neanderthals began to populate previously uninhabited areas of southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. They dared to fight for homes with cave bears, whose height reached 2.5 m and length - 3 m. Huge accumulations of bear bones were found in caves in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other countries.

The shape of the tools became more regular and varied. The tools in different areas of the Earth inhabited by Neanderthals were no longer as identical as before. A large number of small weapons appear. Objects decorated with patterns were found at sites. Burials appear, which indicates the emergence of ideological ideas. It was at this time that one of the features of human culture began to take shape - its diversity. Then some signs appear physical differences inhabitants different areas, races are formed.

It is not yet entirely clear how the Neanderthal man was replaced by modern man. It is known that it appeared suddenly in Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. Approximately 40 thousand years ago, Neanderthals disappear from the face of the earth and are replaced by modern humans - Homo sapiens. For the first time, the remains of these people were found near the French town of Cro-Magnon - so they began to be called Cro-Magnons. This type of people is also called "Homo sapiens sapiens" ("doubly intelligent man") in comparison with the Neanderthal, who is just "Homo sapiens neandertalensis" ("Neanderthal intelligent man"). These people no longer had the features that had given their predecessors a somewhat bestial appearance: their arms became less powerful, their foreheads became higher, and they had a chin protrusion. These people populated all continents, except, of course, Antarctica. They penetrated into Australia along the “bridges” that arose due to glaciation. This is believed to have happened 20 thousand years ago. Probably, America was inhabited 40 - 10 thousand years ago: one of the ways people penetrated there was the bottom of the present Bering Strait, which was dry land.

The technique of making stone tools reaches a very high level. Many of them were now made from plates of regular shape, which were separated and “squeezed out” from prismatic-shaped cores. Plates different sizes subjected to additional processing, blunting the edges or removing thin scales from the surface using a bone or wooden instrument. Some knife-like blades were so sharp that they could be used for shaving. Bone tools - awls and needles - began to be widely used.

The transition from the human herd to the tribal and neighboring community.

The evolutionary biological prototype of society is the herd. Primitive society is the longest period in human history. Sociogenesis begins with gregariousness, i.e. the process of formation of society. The primitive human herd is sometimes called the “ancestral community.” The ancestral community was, apparently, a small group of people (20-40 adults), wandering from place to place in search of food. It is possible that such ancestral communities sometimes united into larger ones, but this unification could only be accidental.

Work in the herd was extremely primitive, instinctive, animal-like. The tools of labor were sticks, clubs, and stones. Often these tools were not processed in any way. There was practically no division of labor.

Natural caves, grottoes and sheds were used as dwellings. It is assumed that human herds moved seasonally across the feeding territory, but in some cases the richness of the fauna made it possible to use this territory for a long time, so there were cases when a camp in the same place was used for several years or even several generations. However, such long-term use of the feeding area became possible only with the development of hunting. It is important to note that if gathering was a traditional occupation and passed down to man from his anthropoid ancestors, then hunting played an important role not only in the biological, but also in the social development of man. Being the basis of the economy, it united the primitive collective and demanded clearer organization and coherence of life. The objects of hunting, depending on the fauna of a particular region, were various animals. In the tropical zone these were hippos, tapirs, antelopes, wild bulls and even such large animals as elephants. In more northern regions They hunted horses, deer, bison, wild boars, and sometimes killed predators - cave bears and lions, whose meat was also eaten.

It is difficult to imagine hunting large animals, especially those that lived in herds, without the driven method. The hunter's weapons were too weak for him to kill a large animal directly (with the exception of weak and sick animals that lagged behind the herd). Probably, the animals were frightened by noise, fire, stones and, as the location of many sites shows, they were driven to a deep gorge or a large cliff. The animals fell and broke, and man could only finish them off. That is why it was hunting, and, above all, hunting for large animals, that was the form of labor activity that most stimulated the organization of the ancestral community, forcing its members to demonstrate collectivism.

A special issue is marriage and family relations during the period of the primitive human herd. Scientists believe that during this period there was no regulation of sexual relations, however, it is possible that the primitive human herd inherited from the animal associations that preceded it a harem family, consisting of several adult individuals (up to two dozen) led by a leader. If this theory is correct, then the primitive human herd should have consisted of several harem associations, regrouped from time to time due to the death of their heads, fights over women, etc., and generally less stable than itself.

An important achievement during the period of the primitive human herd was the “taming” of fire.

40-30 thousand years ago in the history of mankind begins new stage- Upper (Late) Paleolithic. At the turn of the Lower and Upper Paleolithic, the process of biological formation of man ends, and the area of ​​his habitat expands. The primitive human herd is being replaced by a fundamentally new organization - the clan, or clan community. It is characterized by: collective ownership of the products received, and in the conditions of a producing economy, the main means of production - land; joint resolution of issues of organization and management of the team; joint education of its young members. The number of members of the clan community significantly exceeds the number of members of the primitive human herd.

As people spread across the globe, they adapted to different climatic conditions. In addition to natural shelters, people at this time begin to use artificial structures - dugouts up to 2-3 m deep and about 6 m in diameter. Wood, bones of large animals, skins of mammoths and rhinoceroses were used as building materials. As a rule, there was a fire in the center of the dugout, and holes were dug in the floor for supplies. The need to create an artificial habitat was caused by a certain complication of human life associated with the onset of a general cooling.

A natural (between the sexes) division of labor appears, which gradually becomes more and more clear - division of labor by gender is added to the division of labor by age.

From ethnographic materials and other sources it is known that the clan appears in two forms: maternal and paternal. The initial form of the genus is called maternal. Its emergence had its historical roots:

Due to the natural division of labor, women's occupation became predominantly gathering, a more reliable source of food.

The woman was the keeper of the home, which was the center of the life of the group.

Due to the disorder of family and marital relations, kinship was reliably established through the mother's line - the so-called matrilineal line of reference.

At this time, the first regulation of marriage and family relations appeared: marital relations now they become possible only outside the clan (there has always been an even number of clans in the tribe). Such marriage relationships are called exogamous (from the Greek exo - outside and gamos - marriage) in contrast to the endogamous ones accepted in the primitive human herd (endon - inside and gamos - marriage). The child was raised in the same family as his mother.

The tribe had its own rather vast territory on which it lived, hunted and which it defended from the encroachments of other tribes.

During the Mesolithic period occurs major change in the development of hunting - the invention of the bow and arrow, which made it possible to hunt birds, small animals, and fast running animals. It became possible to hunt at a distance without getting close to the hunted object. Thus, hunting became a less dangerous activity than before, and at the same time the amount of food obtained increased and the diet became more varied. At the same time, harpoons, nets, and crushed boats appear. The process of domestication of animals begins. In some areas (where wild cereals grew), agriculture is gradually beginning to develop. The most ancient region where gathering and agriculture were combined is the region of Palestine, where agriculture arose approximately 11-10 thousand years BC. e. The transition from an appropriating economy to a producing one occurred during the Neolithic period and was called the “Neolithic revolution.”

From the period of the emergence of a producing economy, unevenness in the development of tribes begins to be observed. Along with the tribes of farmers and pastoralists, tribes of hunters and gatherers continue to survive.

Agriculture and cattle breeding originated in the conditions of the maternal clan, however, their development leads to its replacement by the paternal clan. The ratio of male and female labor has changed, the development of agriculture and cattle breeding has placed men in a predominant position. The increasing role of male labor also led to changes in family and marital relations. The development of private property, the main producer of which was a man, required its transfer to direct heirs, so it became necessary to keep track of paternal kinship. Because of this, the conditions of local marriage changed, and the woman began to move into her husband’s family. Marriage became patrilineal. The size of the family was determined by the situation in the household; as a rule, it was a large patriarchal family in which several generations of relatives lived together.

The first major social division of labor occurs - the separation of agriculture and cattle breeding into separate types of activity, which significantly increased labor productivity. Improving the tools of labor leads to the emergence of a surplus product, that is, a product produced in excess of what is necessary, exceeding the immediate needs of a person to maintain his existence. In some cases, even primitive hunters obtained more food than they could consume, but in case of an unsuccessful hunt primitive people There might also be a shortage of the necessary product. With the transition to a producing economy, the regular emergence of a surplus product became possible, which led to the implementation of the second major social division of labor - the separation of crafts.

The occupation of agriculture, which presupposed a sedentary lifestyle, led to an increase in the average size of the community, the emergence of a territorial community and, as a result, quite large permanent settlements, and then cities, which numbered tens or even hundreds residential buildings, places of worship, workshops; the city was usually surrounded by a moat. Skilled workers and architects were required for the production of building materials and the construction of houses, temples, and fortifications. This is how the third major social division of labor arose - the identification of construction as a special type of activity of groups of people.

The fourth major social division of labor was the division of elders, priests, and military leaders. Families appear, from among which leaders are regularly nominated - the formation of a family nobility takes place.

In the process of working, people begin to use metal. The use of bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) is of great importance. Copper and tin are not widespread, so centers of metallurgical production are identified and intertribal ties are strengthened. Later, the appearance of iron will lead to an expansion of cultivated areas. In this case, the slash-and-burn method will be actively used.

The emergence of the world's oldest civilizations.

Approximately in the III-II millennia BC. e. part of humanity made a giant breakthrough - moved from primitiveness to civilization. A qualitatively different world began to be created, although for a long time it still had many connections with primitiveness, and the transition to civilization itself, of course, took place gradually, starting from the 4th-3rd millennia BC. e.

Already in the 3rd millennium BC. e. centers of civilization arose in Egypt, in the Nile River valley, and in Mesopotamia - between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The foundations of the Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations were laid there. Somewhat later - in the III-II millennia BC. e. - Indian civilization arose in the Indus River valley, and Chinese civilization arose in the 2nd millennium (in the Yellow River valley). Around the same time, the Hittite civilization took shape in Asia Minor, the Phoenician in Western Asia, and the Hebrew in Palestine. At the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization appeared, from which the ancient Greek one grew. In the 1st millennium BC. e. The list of ancient civilizations was replenished: the civilization of Urartu was formed on the territory of Transcaucasia, the powerful civilization of the Persians was formed on the territory of Iran, and the Roman civilization was formed in Italy. The zone of civilizations covered not only the Old World, but also America, where the civilizations of the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas arose in its central part (Mesoamerica). However, here the development of civilization was noticeably delayed: it began only at the turn of our era.

Scientists have long noticed that all ancient civilizations arose in special climatic conditions: their zone covered territories with tropical, subtropical and partly temperate climates. This means that the average annual temperature in such areas was quite high - about +20 ° C. Its greatest fluctuations were in some areas of China, where snow could fall in winter. Only a few thousand years later, the zone of civilizations began to spread to the north, where nature is more severe.

Many Old World civilizations were born in river valleys. Rivers (Tigris and Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Yangtze and others) played such a huge role in their lives that these civilizations are often called river civilizations. Indeed, the fertile soil in their deltas contributed to the development of agriculture. Rivers tied together different areas countries and created opportunities for trade within it and with neighbors. But taking advantage of all these advantages was by no means easy. The lower reaches of the rivers were usually swamped, and a little further the land was already drying out from the heat, turning into a semi-desert. In addition, river beds often changed, and floods easily destroyed fields and crops. It took the work of many generations to drain the swamps, to build canals for a uniform supply of water to the entire country, and to be able to withstand floods. However, these efforts bore fruit: yields increased so sharply that scientists call the transition to irrigation farming an agrarian revolution.

The most important feature of the new stage of human development, after the Neolithic revolution, was the creation of states. In the IV - II millennium BC. e. they occur over a wide area from Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The history of these states from the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. approximately until the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. is called the history of the Ancient World and is conventionally divided into three stages:
end of the 4th millennium BC e. - end of the 2nd millennium BC e. (Era of Early Antiquity)
end of the 2nd millennium BC e. - end of the 1st millennium BC e. (the heyday of ancient states)
first half of the 1st millennium AD e. (era of late Antiquity)

In the history of ancient states, there are two main development options - ancient eastern and ancient (Greece, Rome), each of which has its own specifics.

The chronological boundaries of the period of the first civilizations (end of the 4th millennium BC - end of the 2nd millennium BC) coincide with the Bronze Age, or Bronze Age. The very first states on earth appeared in the valleys of large rivers - the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, where it was possible to create irrigation systems - the basis of irrigated agriculture. In the valleys of these rivers, people were much less dependent on natural conditions than in other places and received stable harvests. The construction of irrigation complexes required the joint work of a large number of people, its clear organization, and was one of the most important functions of the first states, the initial form of which were the so-called nomes.

It has already been said that in the East the transition from primitiveness to civilization was accompanied by the development of irrigation agriculture. The creation of irrigation systems required the organization of collective labor of a large number of people, the efforts of the entire country as a whole. It was also difficult to maintain the canal system in order. All this work could not be carried out without a rigid organization, without a strong centralized government. As a result, in all ancient eastern civilizations a special form of state developed - despotism.

In different civilizations it could have some differences, but its essence was the same: at the head of the state was a ruler who had full power and was considered the owner of all the land. This type of power was realized through an extensive administrative system, that is, an apparatus of officials that covered the entire country. Officials not only collected taxes from the population, but also organized joint agricultural work and construction, monitored the condition of canals, recruited recruits for military campaigns, and administered justice.

Such a state structure was very durable and stable: even when large empires fell apart, each of them reproduced despotism in miniature.

The kings occupied a completely exceptional position in the despotic state. The king was considered, at least formally, the sole owner of all lands, during wars he stood at the head of the army, was the highest authority in court, taxes flowed to him, he organized irrigation work, and was the high priest initiated into all the sacraments. The stability of despotism was also maintained due to the belief in the divinity of the king. In Egypt, for example, the pharaoh was called not only the Lord of the Two Lands, i.e., Southern and Northern Egypt, but also the living embodiment of the god Horus, the ruler of the heavens. Subsequently, the pharaoh was endowed with a “solar name” - he became the god Ra. His palace was considered a temple. His name was forbidden to be pronounced, because it was believed to have a special magical power that should not be wasted.

In China, the emperor was called the Son of Heaven, the supreme deity.

In the ancient Indian religious book, the Veda, it was written that the king was created from particles of the body of different gods, “and therefore he surpasses all created beings in brilliance... Like the sun, he burns the eyes and heart, and no one on earth can look at him. According to his [supernatural] power he is fire and wind, he is the sun and the moon, he is the lord of justice..."

All these titles were not just flowery metaphors with the help of which the king exalted himself over his subjects. Not in a figurative, but in a literal sense, for ancient people the king was a god in human form. This belief dates back to primitive times, to mysterious rituals in which the leader of the tribe, also a priest, played the role of a creator, creating world order out of chaos. As in the primitive era, ancient civilizations maintained the belief that the king (leader) possesses magical powers on which the well-being of his people depends. This power extends to his subjects even after the death of the king, or rather, after his transition to another world. Therefore, during the funeral of the king, great importance was attached to the correct performance of all funeral rites. Giant pyramids were built in Egypt in order to equip its new “dwelling” as best as possible: after all, the prosperity of the country depended on the afterlife bliss of the “great god”.

These ancient ideas became a thing of the past very slowly: the belief that the king was a god gradually became obsolete (in China, already in the 1st millennium BC, the idea appeared that an unrighteous king could be removed), but the belief that the royal power is sacred and will remain for a long time.

Society structure

Society in ancient civilizations, unlike primitive times, was heterogeneous; different social layers appeared in it. This was due, on the one hand, to the fact that a state was formed that required a special apparatus for governance. On the other hand, in a civilized society, professional and functional differences intensified (craft was separated from agriculture, trade arose, etc.), and property stratification grew. Already in ancient times, a complex structure of society began to take shape, which subsequently became increasingly differentiated and branched.

Feature eastern societies there was their strict hierarchy: each social layer occupied its clearly defined place and differed from others in its social significance, as well as responsibilities, rights and privileges.

Therefore, society in ancient civilizations is often depicted as a pyramid. At its top stands the king, followed by the highest layer of the nobility, consisting of priests, clan and military aristocracy. These were the most privileged sections of society. Representatives of the nobility occupied high government positions and had at their disposal vast lands. These lands could be taken from communities, and most often they were given by the king or conquered during wars.

A large apparatus of officials also occupied a high position in society, so learning brought great practical benefits.

A special stratum was made up of merchants, who were supported by the state interested in the supply of foreign and rare goods. Thanks to the merchants, economic connections, still very weak, were established between individual regions.

Warriors constituted a separate category of the population. While serving in the standing army, they received supplies from the state. After successful campaigns, distribution of lands and slaves was arranged; in addition, the warriors lived by plundering the occupied lands. In peacetime, they were often involved in hard work: for example, in Egypt, warriors worked in quarries.

There were quite a number of artisans, most of them lived in cities, but there were also artisans (obviously dependent) who worked in workshops belonging to temples, the king or the nobility, under the lash of overseers.

The bulk of society was made up of free community members-peasants. The rural community, both in ancient civilizations and in the Middle Ages, right up to the industrial revolution, was the main production unit. It goes back to the distant past, to the primitive era, when people were grouped first into clans and then into neighboring communities. The rural community was formed on the basis of the primitive neighboring community. However, it could also preserve family, family ties.

The main economic unit in the community was a large patriarchal family, which had its own house, property, and sometimes slaves, personal plot. She received a plot of land from the community and enjoyed the harvest from it, but such plots were considered the property of the entire community.

All members of the community were bound by mutual responsibility: this meant both mutual assistance and responsibility for crimes committed by any of its members. The community, for example, had to compensate for losses from theft and pay fines for those guilty if they themselves could not do this.

The state imposed a number of responsibilities on the community: monitor the condition of the irrigation system (in its area), take part in drainage work, build canals, and supply recruits in case of war. In addition, each community member had to pay a tax to the state, that is, to the king, who, as already mentioned, formally owned all the land.

Despite the rather heavy duties, belonging to the community was a privilege: free community members had much greater rights than those who lost their land. The community's way of life had its own characteristics: it was economically closed, that is, it lived on a subsistence economy and produced everything necessary for its existence. The state intervened in her life mainly when it was necessary to collect taxes or wage war. This isolation of the community was reinforced by the right of self-government. Controversial issues were resolved at community meetings. Even with regard to religion, the community was completely independent: almost every locality had its own special deities and cults.

A person in a community felt, first of all, part of a team, and not an individual who could build his own life, independently of others. And therefore, expulsion from the community was considered a severe punishment.

However, not all the peasantry belonged to communities; many lost their plots, as the process of property stratification was going on in the community, albeit very slowly. Peasants who found themselves outside the community, as a rule, worked on lands that were in the possession of temples, the nobility, or the king himself. They also received an allotment, but on a different basis, as if for rent; at the same time, they not only had to pay quitrent, but also did not have the right to leave their plots.

Slavery existed in ancient Eastern civilizations. Slaves, as a rule, were part of a large patriarchal family, which is why this type of slavery is usually called domestic slavery. Slave labor was also used on lands and in workshops owned by the nobility, in palace and temple farms, in mines and construction. This type of slavery is called patriarchal. This name is based on the word “patriarch”, i.e. the head of the family. The slave is seen as a junior, not a full member big family, works together with his owners, who, although they consider him their property, do not see him simply as a living instrument of labor, and recognize him as having some human rights.

Mostly prisoners of war became slaves, but there were also internal sources - for example, debt slavery, which grew as the community stratified. However, debt slavery was not necessarily lifelong: having worked off his debt, yesterday’s slave again became a free person. The number of slaves could be very significant: say, in China in the 3rd century. BC e. The slave trade assumed such proportions that markets were created for the sale of slaves. In Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Even people of average income had slaves: artisans, gardeners, shepherds.

The labor of slaves in the East remained complementary to the labor of free and dependent peasants and artisans: it did not play a decisive role in economic life.

At this stage, in all states, although with some peculiarities (for example, in Egypt), there were two sectors of the economy associated with types of land ownership - one of the most important characteristics economic development, especially in the early stages of human history, when agriculture was the basis of the economy. First of all, there was a communal sector of the economy, where land ownership belonged to territorial communities, and movable property was the private property of community members who cultivated the plots of land allocated to them. In addition, there was a state sector of the economy, which included lands that belonged to the state in the person of the tsar, as well as lands granted to churches: formally free, but powerless, the so-called royal people worked here. In both the state and community sectors, slave labor was used as auxiliary labor, and a patriarchal type of slave-owning relations was formed.

However, as research by Russian and foreign archaeologists and historians has shown, slavery was not an economic basis, the main thing characteristic feature Bronze Age civilizations. The bulk of the products were created by community members and artisans, as well as dependent government or temple workers. Another feature of the Bronze Age economic system is the hierarchy of property relations. At the top of the pyramid was the supreme all-powerful ruler (pharaoh, king), who shared power with the priests.

The emergence of private property, money circulation, classes, the state - social inventions - became business card this time. Private property inherited by family members (usually through the male line) became a serious incentive to increase labor efficiency.

Communal property ensured survival and slow progress in conditions of high uncertainty and variability of the natural environment, low labor productivity, and lack of surplus product. But now it has turned into an obstacle to development. Workers who used more efficient technologies cultivating land, raising livestock, processing agricultural products, manufacturing handicrafts, building houses and structures, regularly producing surplus product, did not want to share the result of their more fruitful labor with other members of the community.

The development of regular exchange required the creation of a universal equivalent in which the value of diverse goods would be expressed and materialized. Having tested many different candidates for this role (bundles of shells, pebbles, livestock, etc.), humanity in the Bronze Age secured the role of a measure of value, a means of circulation and accumulation of metal money - gold and silver.

Several economic levels were formed: the lower level - an agricultural, pastoral or craft family, a neighboring community, semi-commodity or commercial slaveholding farms; regional - in individual territories, state - across the state. A stable market emerged (which, however, did not cover food and clothing for the bulk of the population, but included the purchase and sale of slaves) on the scale of individual countries, and commodity flows between countries were formed.

The fifth major social division of labor occurred - groups of people emerged who, on a professional basis, performed the functions of the state and supported the rules of law (pharaoh, king, courtiers, military leaders, judges, police officers, etc.). The state also took on some economic functions: organizing the construction of irrigation structures, pyramids, temples, protecting property relations, regulating monetary circulation (minting money), etc.

The richest people in the state had the opportunity to invite architects, sculptors, artists, dancers, chroniclers, astrologers; Schools of scribes arose with professional teachers. This is how the sixth major division of labor took place.

Man in the face of the law

All ancient civilizations created written codes of laws. This was a big step forward compared to primitive society, where customs operated. They developed gradually, over hundreds of centuries, and turned into a tradition to which all members of the clan had to obey.

The laws created in ancient civilizations have a number of common features. And the first thing that strikes a modern person is the difference in punishments depending on the social status of the criminal. For example, everywhere in those days, the ancient primitive custom, which received the force of law, was preserved, according to which a person who caused bodily harm to someone should repay the same. However, if the culprit occupied a privileged position in society, he simply paid the victim a monetary reward.

Such differences were especially clear in India. A person who belonged to the highest caste of Brahman priests was not executed, even if he was “immersed in all sorts of vices.” According to Indian laws, such a Brahman simply had to be expelled from the country, without causing him bodily harm, with all his property. But if a Shudra (a representative of the lower caste of servants) dared to insult a Brahman with abusive words, his tongue was cut out.

The state guarded the interests of the highest strata of society: the most severe punishments awaited those who opposed the authorities, committed crimes against priests and temples, harmed or stole the property of the king and his entourage, sheltered runaway slaves, etc.

The inequality that reigned in society extended to the family. In all ancient civilizations, except Egypt, where remnants of the traditions of matriarchy were preserved, the law supported the patriarchal structure of the family. This meant that all property was at the disposal of the head of the family, who had the right to organize economic activities in his small “state” and to punish his “subjects” (younger family members: wife, children, younger brothers and sisters). The oppressive structure of the patriarchal family is perfectly illustrated by the fact that by law it was possible to sell children into slavery - usually for non-payment of debts.

The role of religion in the life of the most ancient civilizations of the East.

Religion played a huge role in the spiritual life of Eastern civilizations. Religious ideas developed and changed along with the development of man himself, but the most ancient beliefs, dating back to primitiveness, retained their power for a long time. Throughout almost the entire life of ancient Eastern civilizations, religious ideas and the world embodied in the form of myths.

Man, who stepped into the era of civilization, nevertheless continued, as in primitive times, to feel like a part of nature. This is confirmed by the myths of many peoples, which tell us that man descended from different parts nature: his flesh is from the earth, his blood is from water, his bones are from stones, his breath is from the wind, and his eyes are from the sun.

On the other hand, nature was endowed with human traits. Animals and birds, heavenly bodies, stones, trees, springs - all this was considered animate and similar to humans.

The gods were also closely associated with nature and embodied its forces, good or evil. The most ancient beliefs underlay the cult of animal gods, which flourished in Egypt. Each region had its own patron gods, who traced their origins to primitive totems.

The most important thing in the system of mythological ideas was, of course, the image of the afterlife. Death was perceived as a transition to another world, not much different from the earthly one. The Egyptians, for example, believed that somewhere in the west lay mysterious world dead; there people lead approximately the same life as on earth. To get there, a deceased person must overcome obstacles and protect himself from evil demons.

In ancient times, the foundations of astronomy, medicine, and mathematics were already laid, and many discoveries made in those days still surprise scientists. However, the sprouts of rational consciousness, timid attempts to scientifically comprehend the world were not opposed to mythology, but were intricately intertwined with it. Therefore, for example, in doctors’ prescriptions, prescriptions of a purely medical nature coexisted peacefully with magical formulas, which, according to doctors, were equally necessary for the health of the patient.

Cities and temples were centers of knowledge, centers of enlightenment, since it was in them that educated, literate people who created a written culture were concentrated. The priests at that time were also scientists who held the most secret knowledge in their hands. The spread of written culture also occurred because the state needed a constant influx of literate people to replenish its administrative apparatus. They were usually recruited from among those who studied in schools and temples. Of course, people often entered these schools guided by practical interests, seeking, for example, to occupy an advantageous position as an official. But regardless of this, in ancient civilizations the circle of people who possessed knowledge and were able to develop this knowledge slowly expanded.

New image of the world

So, first natural science knowledge did not destroy the mythological picture of the world, although they gradually undermined it. The most decisive blow to mythological consciousness was dealt in the 1st millennium BC. e., approximately from the 8th to the 2nd centuries. a major revolution took place in the spiritual life of mankind. Some historians call it revolutionary. In this era, independently of each other, almost simultaneously, many civilizations of antiquity (but not all) began to build new system ideas about the world. The destruction of the mythological perception of the world, with its calm stability and sense of eternal repetition in the life of nature and people, forced man to solve new complex issues. Having ceased to feel like a part of nature, he began to look at himself differently, felt himself as an individual, but at the same time realized his loneliness, the horror of the world around him and his helplessness. The disharmony of life opened up before him, and the man tried to understand its laws and develop a new attitude towards it. And most importantly, an image of an ideal world began to be created, an image in many ways opposite to reality, in which humanity sought to understand what the world, people and the relationships between them should be like. Now death is no longer perceived as a simple continuation of earthly existence. The ideal of a fair and harmoniously arranged life is transferred to the other world. A clear moral coordinate system is created: the sinfulness of the earthly world is contrasted with the purity of the heavenly one. In this era, religions of salvation are formed, based on detailed ethics, with the help of which one can free oneself from sins, rebuild oneself and life in such a way that it meets the high requirements of divine justice. God now personifies not the mysterious forces of nature, but justice, the highest ideal of good. In order to receive his favor, you need not resort to magic, but improve yourself or the world around you.

In India, the religions of salvation were Buddhism and Hinduism; Confucianism emerges in China; in Iran, Zarathustra preached the doctrine of the world as an arena for the struggle between good and evil; in Palestine, the prophets Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah denounced the people and kings of Israel and opened the way to moral purification. Various schools of philosophy originated in Greece.

Recommended reading:

• Khachaturyan V. M. History of world civilizations from ancient times to the end of the twentieth century. 10 - 11 grades M.: Bustard, 2000.

The materials in the anthology allow us to form a more specific idea about the social structure of the countries of the Ancient East (doc. No. 1), about their state-political structure (doc. no. 2), about one of the reasons for the periodic collapse and restoration of states (doc. no. 3), about culture and cultural-historical contacts of the countries of the Ancient East (doc. No. 14).

Understanding the specifics of ancient Eastern civilizations is impossible without familiarizing yourself with the works of leading historians, which give general characteristics countries of the Ancient East, certain aspects of society and the state are considered, and debates are ongoing about the place of ancient civilizations in world history.

L.I. Semennikova is considering world history from the point of view of the civilizational approach. She identifies three types of civilization, each of which is characterized by its own own type historical development. The first type of civilization is the aborigines of Australia, the Indians of America, many tribes of Africa, small peoples of Siberia and Northern Europe. They are characterized by a non-progressive form of existence, that is, there is no development. The second type of civilization is the countries of the East. They develop cyclically, as if in a spiral. One cycle differs minimally from the other, so changes in all areas public life occur extremely slowly: several generations of people live in almost the same conditions. The third type of civilization - the type of progressive development - is presented ancient civilization(Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome) and modern European civilization. The USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some other countries belong to the same type of development. It was brought to new territories from Europe by large numbers of emigrants. The paragraph “The Phenomenon of the East” describes the main features of the eastern states, which made it possible to classify them as a cyclical type of development. First of all, the author reveals the originality of social consciousness formed in the Ancient East. It is no coincidence that the characteristics of the eastern type of civilization begin with identifying the characteristics of the mentality. According to modern ideas, society cannot move to a qualitatively new stage of development without corresponding changes social psychology most of the population. Meanwhile, the features of social consciousness noted in the article were reproduced from generation to generation and prevented the emergence of a desire for novelty, since they were sanctified by a religious-mythological worldview that sanctioned the immutability of existence. The social system is further characterized: the strength of the community, conditioned by the spirit of collectivity, which was the result of economic necessity, led to the fact that the entire society was built on the principles of collectivism: the personal principle was poorly developed. This contributed to the rigid class division of ancient Eastern societies, which made the formation of a class structure extremely difficult. Rich and poor members of the community felt themselves to belong to the same community, the same class. The workers of the royal and temple households, deprived of property, also considered themselves to be in the same category of people, although their property status could differ even more. Another consequence of the existence of the community was the absence of private property in the full sense of the word. Free community members could buy and sell land in a number of countries of the Ancient East, but the supreme owner of the land was the state, which exploited the community members through a tax system. Dispossessed public sector workers could manage and receive income from huge farms if they held a high position, but this land belonged to the state. Another feature of the social system in the East is the presence of only vertical connections, lack of connections between communities. The existence of vertical connections was due to the structure government controlled: it was carried out with the help of a huge bureaucratic apparatus that had a hierarchical structure. The self-sufficiency of the community led to the fact that external relations were reduced to a minimum. The state plays a colossal role in such a society, taking on the form of oriental despotism. The condition for the existence of such power is the dominance of state and public land, as well as the dependent position of a person in relation to the system of power.

L.I. Semennikova draws attention to the seemingly surprising flowering of culture in the East in conditions of complete suppression of the individual. The author sees the main reason for this phenomenon in the fact that society’s focus on higher spiritual values ​​served as a compensatory mechanism that made it possible to live in conditions of complete absence of freedom. ancient east collapse state culture

THEM. Dyakonov is a supporter of the unity of the world historical process. In his opinion, all of humanity goes through a series of successive stages in its development, and the author identifies the same stages for both Eastern and Western societies. Regarding peoples who do not show a tendency towards development, I.M. Dyakonov believes that they are simply delayed at the birth stage due to the characteristics of the environment, but since the era of class societies is only 1-2% of the duration of human existence, this lag is insignificant. For the Ancient World, the author identifies two stages (in Dyakonov’s terminology, phases) of social development. This is early antiquity (mainly the Copper and Bronze Age), which is characterized by the existence of fragile, relatively large states, representing the unification of a number of small state entities (a city and an adjacent district) under the leadership of the strongest of them. Examples: the state of Shemer and Akkad, the Hittite kingdom (the Hittites knew iron, but not steel). Extremely primitive weapons did not make it possible to widely use slave labor: a man wielding a shovel could be dangerous. Therefore, it was mainly women and children who were in a slave state, and the position of adult men was not much different from the lifestyle of free community members or public sector workers. That is, slavery was patriarchal in nature: slaves worked in the home on an equal basis with family members, and in the public sector - on an equal basis with local workers deprived of ownership of the means of production (with the exception of women and adolescents in royal and temple households, who were actually exploited as slaves). Strong states arose only where it was caused by economic necessity, as in Ancient Egypt. The second stage is imperial antiquity. The transition to this stage occurred as a result of the invention of steel, which made it possible to wage large-scale wars and the formation of empires, and also created the opportunity for the “classical” exploitation of slaves. Dyakonov considers the New Assyrian power, the New Babylonian, the Persian and a number of others to be states of this type countries But, despite the significant increase in the number of slaves, their exploitation was classical only in the Roman Empire.

In the article by S.M. Stam examines the question of the relationship between the city and the state in ancient and medieval societies. The author notes two options for understanding the city phenomenon. In the first case, the city means locality, which arose as a result of separation from Agriculture such public functions as sacred (priestly), defensive, administrative. The formation of cities in this understanding in the Ancient East went parallel to the process of creating a state and was one of the main forms of this process. Another important form was the formation of a permanent squad of future kings. The city as a center of crafts and trade arose later as a result of the separation of crafts from agriculture, but in the Ancient East this process had its own specifics. Here the city, as a center of sacred, military and administrative functions, often became a center of crafts and trade on the initiative of the emerging royal power, since skilled artisans were needed to service royal and temple households, and international trade was often conducted by special state agents. Stam S.M. also draws attention to the difference between the ancient eastern and ancient cities. The ancient city acts as a center of settlement for landowners who have land property outside the city (however within the boundaries of the polis), but are mainly engaged in crafts and trade. A city in the Ancient East is a place of settlement for people deprived of land ownership anywhere, since cities belonged to the public sector and people lived in them (royal military and administrative administration, priesthood, artisans and traders) who were separated from the community, and also slaves (private, state and temple). In the East, the city was a pillar of state (royal) power. IN ancient world the concepts of city and state were united by the term polis. The state arises as a result of the social division of labor and the formation of social inequality on this basis. Ancient Eastern society was not class, but class, and the decisive role in the process of state formation was played by the separation of administrative and priestly functions from agriculture (military functions were separated only partially - in the person of the military administration Free community members in ancient societies were also warriors).

Let's summarize some results. The history of the Ancient East has great length in time. We begin our study with the appearance of the first state formations in the Nile and Euphrates valleys in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. and we end in the 30s-20s for the Middle East. IV century BC, when Greco-Macedonian troops under the leadership of Alexander the Great captured the entire Middle East, the Iranian plateau, the southern part of Central Asia and the northwestern part of India. As for Central Asia, India and the Far East, the ancient history of these countries is studied up to the 3rd-5th centuries AD. This border is conditional and is determined by the fact that in Europe at the end of the 5th century. AD The Western Roman Empire fell and the peoples of the European continent entered the Middle Ages. Geographically, the territory called the Ancient East extends from west to east from modern Tunisia, where one of the most ancient states, Carthage, was located, to modern China, Japan and Indonesia, and from south to north - from modern Ethiopia to the Caucasus Mountains and the southern shores of the Aral Sea . In this vast geographical area, there were numerous states that left a bright mark on history: the great Ancient Egyptian kingdom, the Babylonian state, the Hittite state, the huge Assyrian empire, the state of Urartu, small state formations in the territory of Phenicia, Syria and Palestine, the Trojan, Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms, the states of the Iranian Plateau, including the world Persian monarchy, which included the territories of almost the entire Near and part of the Middle East, state formations of Central Asia, states in the territory of Hindustan, China, Korea and Southeast Asia.

According to natural conditions different territories The ancient East has its own characteristics, although they also have common features: these are areas of a mainly subtropical climate with very hot, dry summers, mild winters; The river basins with their fertile alluvial (formed by river sediments) valleys are interspersed with rocky deserts, vast plateaus and mountain ranges. The great rivers played a particularly important role in the historical destinies of the peoples of the Ancient East: the Nile (length approx. 2700 km), Euphrates (length approx. 2700 km) and Tigris (length approx. 1900 km), Indus (length approx. 3180 km), Ganges (length approx. 2700 km), Yellow River (length approx. 4850 km), Yangtze (length approx. 5800 km), Mekong (length approx. 4500 km). These rivers, which are among the largest in the world, globe, form vast basins with fertile, well-irrigated alluvial soil, and they have one property that was very important for the historical development of these regions: it was possible to live and conduct economic activities here, subject to constant regulation of river regimes, storage of water in reservoirs and reservoirs with subsequent irrigation of land through a system of artificial canals, as in the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, or removal of excess moisture and land reclamation, flood control, as in the valleys of the Ganges, Yellow River, and Mekong. The abundant natural nutrition of the great rivers leads to a strong rise in the water level during floods (the level of the Nile rises at other times of the year), threatening terrible floods, which necessitate the need to strengthen the banks with the help of dams, dams and other structures. There were fish in the rivers, which helped feed the population. In the foothills surrounding the Euphrates and Tigris valleys, on the Abyssinian Highlands, located near the Nile Valley, in the Mekong Valley, many cereal plants grew wild. They were cultivated and gave rise to barley, wheat, millet, rice and other grain crops. The existence of a rich fauna in the foothills made it possible to domesticate a number of animals and move on to cultural cattle breeding.

At the same time, in alluvial valleys, as a rule, there was little stone, building wood, and metals (copper, tin, gold, silver), which were absolutely necessary for organizing normal economic activities. These types of raw materials, on the contrary, were available in mountainous regions, deserts and highlands adjacent to the valleys of large rivers. In this regard, quite early, already from the 4th millennium BC, the necessary contacts were established between the inhabitants of the alluvial valleys (Nile, Tigris and Euphrates) with the population of mountainous regions and deserts (with Nubia and Sinai, the Armenian Highlands, Taurus, etc. ), the exchange of products and raw materials has been established. With a low level of production and trade, these contacts usually resulted in the form of predatory wars, the result of which was the forcible seizure of raw materials and products by the conquerors from the conquered peoples or the inclusion of their territories with sources of raw materials in the state of the conquerors and the creation of large military powers, covering, in addition to the basins of the great rivers also the territory of deserts and highlands.

The presence of favorable opportunities for human life in the basins of the great rivers, contacts with the inhabitants of mountainous regions and plateaus led to the development of productive forces. Quite large settlements arise. Concentrated in certain settlements big number people, here (already in the 3rd millennium BC) public buildings of impressive size were created, defensive walls appeared to protect against enemy attacks, that is, cities emerged. The city is a fundamentally new phenomenon in the history of that time. It becomes the center of administration and religious worship; it concentrates developed handicraft production, serving the needs of the ruler and his administration, ministers of worship, and also working for the neighboring agricultural district. The creation of a productive economy, agriculture and cattle breeding, the development of metals (copper, bronze) for the manufacture of tools, weapons and household items, the emergence of the first cities led to the decomposition of the clan system. The social structure of society became more complex, differences appeared in terms of wealth, nobility, occupation, and degree of influence on fellow tribesmen. The main classes of ancient Eastern society were formed. One of the classes was made up of free community members who participated in communal ownership of land and had the right of community self-government, and initially the right to participate in the election of a leader-ruler. Another class was represented by members of the staff of temple and government farms, deprived of ownership of the means of production. They owned land with the condition of service or work, and in some cases received food rations. Among them could be both large administrators and dependent workers, whose position was something between the position of free people and slaves. The priesthood was a separate class. In addition, there were slaves, who essentially also represented a special disenfranchised class. The institution of slavery was little known in clan society. Slavery became possible at that stage of development human society and its productive forces, when an individual in the labor process could produce not only the necessary, but also a surplus product, thus its use in the labor process became profitable. But the primitiveness of the weapons of that era (a short copper dagger, a spear with a copper tip, an imperfect bow) made it impossible to use large masses of male slaves not only in the households of free community members, but even in temple and government households: a man in the position of a slave and armed with a copper shoveling could be dangerous. Therefore, mainly women and teenagers were exploited as slaves. The situation of an adult captured man was not much different from the lifestyle of dependent workers of temple and government farms. With the transition to steel weapons and the formation of empires, the number of slaves increased, their exploitation became more organized, but slaves were never the basis of production in the Ancient East. The main producers throughout ancient Eastern history were formally free community members, who, with the establishment of strong state (royal) power, began to be exploited through the collection of taxes by the state, which gradually began to be considered the supreme owner of the land.

The most important feature of the social structure in the Ancient East is the existence of a community, which was the main social and territorial unit. Any ancient Eastern state, with the exception of a few cities, temples and royal households (public sector), consisted of many rural communities, each of which had its own organization and was a closed little world. There were no horizontal connections, that is, connections between individual communities. Communities in the countries of the Ancient East date back to tribal communities in origin, but in their content, character and internal structure they were already a new phenomenon. The community gradually lost its tribal character and became an organization of neighbors living in a certain territory and bound by rights and obligations in relation to each other and, very importantly, to the state. The community leadership was the lowest level in the huge bureaucratic management system of the ancient Eastern states. The territorial community itself consisted of a number of individual households, which represented large families or family communities. Within the community there was property and social differentiation; the rich and noble elite and the poor, tenants of other people's land, stood out. Wealthy community members had slaves at their disposal, although slavery in the community was patriarchal in nature, that is, slaves (women and teenagers) participated in the production process along with the owners, performing the most labor-intensive work (for example, grinding grain between two stones). The exception was the few farms of noble and wealthy community members, the exploitation of slaves in which was similar to their use in temple and royal farms. Despite significant internal differentiation, the community retained collectivist forms of life and production, which prevented the development of private property relations: ancient Eastern society did not know complete private property. Historically, the first reason for the stability of community organization was the presence of agriculture, the functioning of which required joint work to regulate the regime of great rivers: an individual family, a small community could not cope with the mighty river elements. But then other reasons appeared: the pronounced class structure of ancient Eastern society, the underdevelopment of the class structure, the lack of private property, the weak development of commodity-money relations, the role of the state in the life of society, the peculiarities of social consciousness - all these factors, determined by the strength of the community, in turn contributed to its stability. The effect turned into a cause and there was no way out of the vicious circle.

The need to unite and coordinate the efforts of numerous communities led to an increase in the role of state power in the countries of the Ancient East. It required the combined efforts of many communities under a single government administration to create a system of canals, reservoirs, dams and dams that could withstand the vagaries of the great rivers. The rise of state power was also facilitated by the strength of the community, the underdevelopment of the class structure of society and, most importantly, the absence of private ownership of land. In the structure of ancient Eastern societies there were no owners, that is, a category of the population that would be able to oppose itself to the state due to its independence from it and influence. All this led to the fact that government established itself in the Ancient East in the specific form of “Oriental despotism.” Eastern despotism is an unlimited monarchy, not bound in its actions by any laws, which administers the state with the help of a huge, hierarchically structured apparatus of officials. The reason for the appearance of this apparatus was the active intervention of the state in economic life, primarily the organization of an artificial irrigation system. Since the ancient Eastern ruler and his bureaucracy acted as the organizer of the artificial irrigation system, and ultimately of all agriculture and other production (artisans served primarily palaces and temples), the state began to consider the irrigated land as its own: state or royal land. In fact, the land in the ancient Eastern states was divided into two sectors. The public sector, where farms were located that belonged directly to the despot and, as a rule, the priesthood dependent on him. These lands were worked by tenants, staff who received rations for their work, and slaves. The first two categories belonged to the most exploited groups of the population, not counting slaves. The second sector is community-private. The land was in the hereditary possession of numerous communities, which paid land taxes to the state. But after paying the tax and fulfilling duties in kind, the owners could dispose of the land until it was sold.

An important feature of ancient Eastern despotism was the special position of the head of state - a despot ruler. In conditions of developed despotism, the ruler was considered not only the bearer of all power: legislative, executive and judicial, but at the same time was recognized as a superman, a protege of the gods. Deification of the personality of the despot king - important feature ancient eastern despotism. However, in different countries In the Ancient East, the degree of despotism was either the most complete, like despotism in Ancient Egypt, or very limited, such as, for example, the power of the king of the Hittites. The form of despotism was most common in the countries of the Ancient East, but there were also non-monarchical forms of government, a kind of oligarchic republics, for example, in a number of state formations in Northern India, in some cities of Phenicia.

The consciousness of ancient Eastern man was focused on spiritual quests, comprehension of the meaning of life, which was seen in the other world, where real reasons and the purpose of everything that exists. The past, present and future existed simultaneously: the souls of deceased ancestors are next to living people, and the souls of unborn descendants live here. Therefore, the religious-mythological worldview that prevailed in the countries of the Ancient East sanctified the immutability of existence and thereby paralyzed any desire for change.

Due to the above-mentioned features of ancient Eastern societies - the strength of the community, the class structure, the underdevelopment of the class structure and commodity-money relations, the absence of private property, the extraordinary power of the state, the deification of the despot ruler and the sanctioning of the immutability of existence by the religious-mythological consciousness - development in the states of the Ancient East proceeded extremely slowly and was cyclical in nature. Using the history of China as an example, we can distinguish the following stages that make up one development cycle:

• 1. Strengthening centralized power in the fight against decentralization, strengthening the state.
• 2. Crisis of power, retreat before centrifugal forces.
• 3. Decline of power, weakening of the state.
• 4. Social catastrophe: revolt of the people, invasion of foreigners attracted by the weakness of the state and the ease of victory.

The type of historical development determined the characteristics of mass movements in the Ancient East. They were not directed against the system. Their main reason is the arbitrariness of power, the violation of the principles of social justice recognized as the norm in society. The dream of the rebels is to eliminate the violation that has arisen (appropriation of communal land by the rich, oppression and exorbitant extortions of officials, etc.) and return to the lost norm. These movements did not lead society forward. They are only an indicator of failures in the system, which was restored after the crisis with minor changes. At the stage of social catastrophe, there was a change of government, some changes were made, the situation stabilized, and society entered a new stage. The most significant changes occurred at the stage of social catastrophe, when state organization weakened. In conditions of stability, society gravitated towards stagnation, towards immutability.

The vast territories of the Ancient East were inhabited by a motley population belonging to different races and smaller communities into which large racial groups fall: various tribes and nationalities of the Caucasoid, Negro-Australoid race (part of the population of the ancient kingdoms of Napata and Meroe - modern Sudan), Mongoloid race (in the Far East). In turn, the Caucasian race was divided into numerous nationalities, tribes and ethnic groups belonging to various linguistic communities. In a number of geographical regions, large language families developed, which were divided into branches and groups. On the territory of Western Asia lived the peoples and tribes of the numerous Semitic-Hamitic language family, which included the Semitic branch, the Egyptian or Hamitic and a number of others. The tribes and nationalities that spoke Semitic languages ​​included Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Jews, Arabs and some other tribes. Semitic-speaking tribes occupied mainly the territory of Mesopotamia and the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the Syrian-Mesopotamian steppe and the Arabian Peninsula.

The Egyptian or Hamitic branch was represented by the population of Ancient Egypt.

The tribes and nationalities of the Indo-European language family were divided into Anatolian and Indo-Iranian branches. The languages ​​of the first were spoken by the Hittite tribes, Lydians and other smaller tribes of Asia Minor. The languages ​​of the Indo-Iranian branch were spoken by the Medes and Persians, Parthians, Scythians, and Aryans of Ancient India.

The Hurrian-Urartian language family stood apart, the languages ​​of which were spoken by the Urartian tribes, as well as the predecessors of the Hittites. The population of ancient India (before the arrival of the Aryans) belongs to the Dravidian language family, the ancient Chinese tribes spoke languages ​​of the Tibetan-Chinese language family. At the same time, some languages ​​are known, for example, the Sumerians (the ancient inhabitants of the southern part of Mesopotamia), the Kassites who lived in the Zagros Mountains, etc., which cannot be attributed to any linguistic community and stand apart.

Noteworthy is the non-synchronism of the emergence of states among different peoples of the Ancient East. In Mesopotamia and Egypt they arose earlier, in China - later. In the IV-III millennia BC. many regions of the Ancient East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, India) developed in isolation, but by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Economic, political and cultural contacts were established between various regions of the Middle East, and in the 1st millennium a certain unity of the entire ancient Eastern world emerged, which all the more gives grounds to consider the Ancient East as a qualitatively unique phenomenon in the history of mankind.

Having completed the study of the Ancient East, you should be able to answer the question: Ancient Eastern civilizations: a special stage or a special type of historical development? When preparing your answer, keep the following in mind:

• 1. As you can see, in historical science there are both designated points of view, so you can choose any of them, independently justifying them with appropriate arguments.
• 2. The civilizational and stage-based approaches to the history of mankind are not in absolute opposition to each other. The civilizational approach assumes the possibility of identifying certain stages for each type of civilizational development. The staged approach does not exclude taking into account regional uniqueness. In the event that you want to try to combine both approaches, it is necessary to clarify in what aspect you consider Ancient Eastern civilizations as a special stage of historical development, and in what aspect - as a special type.

By the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first centers of civilization arose in the Ancient East. Some scientists call ancient civilizations primary in order to emphasize that they grew directly from primitiveness and did not rely on a previous civilizational tradition. One of the characteristic features of primary civilizations is that they contain a significant element of primitive beliefs, traditions and forms of social interaction.

Primary civilizations arose under similar climatic conditions. Scientists note that their zone covered territories with a tropical, subtropical and partly temperate climate, the average annual temperature of which was quite high - about + 20 ° C. Only a few thousand years later, the zone of civilization began to spread to the north, where nature was more severe. This means that for the emergence of civilization, certain favorable natural conditions are needed.

Historians also point out that the birthplaces of primary civilizations, as a rule, are river valleys. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. civilization arose in the Nile River valley in Egypt, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Somewhat later - in the III-II millennium BC. e. Indian civilization arose in the Indus River valley in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the valley of the Yellow River - Chinese.

Of course, not all ancient civilizations were riverine. Thus, Phenicia, Greece and Rome developed in a special geographical situation. This is a type of coastal civilizations. The peculiarity of coastal conditions left a special imprint on the nature of economic activity, and this, in turn, stimulated the formation of a special type of social and political relations and special traditions. This is how another type of civilization was formed - Western. Thus, already in the Ancient world, two global and parallel types of civilization began to take shape - eastern and western.

The emergence of the world's oldest center of civilization occurred in the southern Mesopotamia - the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Residents of Mesopotamia sowed wheat, barley, flax, raised goats, sheep and cows, erected irrigation structures - canals, reservoirs, with the help of which fields were irrigated. Here in the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. The first supra-communal political structures appear in the form of city-states. These city-states fought with each other for a long time. But in the 24th century. BC e. The ruler of the city of Akkad, Sargon, united all the cities and created a large Sumerian state. In the 19th century BC. e. Sumer was captured by Semitic tribes - the Amorites, and a new eastern state was created on the ruins of ancient Sumer - Babylon. At the head of this state was the king. The personality of the king was deified. He was simultaneously the head of state, the supreme commander and the high priest.

In the ancient Babylonian state, society was socially heterogeneous. It included clan and military nobility, priests, officials, merchants, artisans, free community peasants and slaves. All these social groups were located in a strict hierarchical order in the form of a pyramid. Each group occupied a strictly defined place and differed from others in its social significance, as well as responsibilities, rights and privileges. The dominant force in Babylon was state uniform land ownership.

The inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia made a huge contribution to world culture. This is, firstly, the Sumerian hieroglyphic script, which was transformed in the mass documentation of the royal-temple households into a simplified cuneiform script, which played a decisive role in the subsequent emergence of the alphabetic system. Secondly, this is a constantly developing calendar accounting system and elementary mathematics through the efforts of the priests. That alphabet, that information about the calendar and the starry sky with its zodiac signs, that decimal counting system that we still use today, goes back precisely to Ancient Mesopotamia. To this we can add developed fine arts, the first geographic Maps And much more.

In short, the Sumerians and Babylonians were the first to follow the path of establishing statehood. Their version of the development of the economy and forms of ownership in many respects was a standard for those who followed them.

Features of ancient eastern civilization

First of all, this is a high degree of human dependence on nature, which left a significant imprint on a person’s worldview, his value guidelines, type of management, social and political structure.

The spiritual life of Eastern man was dominated by religious-mythological ideas and canonized styles of thinking. In terms of worldview, in Eastern civilizations there is no division of the world into the world of nature and society, natural and supernatural. Therefore, the perception of the world by Eastern people is characterized by a syncretic approach, expressed in the formulas “all in one” or “all in all.” From the point of view of religious life, Eastern culture is characterized by a moral and volitional orientation toward contemplation, serenity, and mystical unity with natural and supernatural forces. In Eastern worldview systems, a person is absolutely not free; he is predetermined in his actions and fate by cosmic law. The most common symbol of Eastern culture is “a man in a boat without oars.” It testifies to the fact that a person’s life is determined by the flow of the river, i.e. nature, society, the state - therefore a person does not need oars.

Eastern civilizations have amazing stability. A. Macedonian conquered the entire Middle East and built a huge empire. But one day everything returned to normal - to its eternal order. Eastern civilization is focused primarily on the reproduction of existing social structures, the stabilization of the existing way of life that has prevailed for many centuries. A characteristic feature of Eastern civilization is traditionalism. Traditional patterns of behavior and activity, accumulating the experience of ancestors, were considered an important value and were reproduced as stable stereotypes.

Since changes occurred extremely slowly in Eastern societies, several generations of people could exist in the same conditions. This is where respect for the experience of older generations comes from, the cult of ancestors. Eastern civilizations do not know the so-called “fathers and sons” problem. There was complete mutual understanding between generations.

The social life of eastern civilizations is built on the principles of collectivism. Personality is not developed. Personal interests are subordinated to general ones: communal, state. The community collective determined and controlled all aspects of human life: moral standards, spiritual priorities, principles of social justice, the form and nature of work.

The political organization of life in Eastern civilizations was called despotism in history. Let us consider in more detail what eastern despotism was.

One of the characteristic features of eastern despotism is the absolute dominance of the state over society. The state appears here as a force standing above man. It regulates the entire diversity of human relationships (in the family, society, state), shapes social ideals and tastes. The head of state (pharaoh, patesi, caliph) has full legislative and judicial power, is uncontrolled and irresponsible, appoints and removes officials, declares war and makes peace, exercises supreme command of the army, creates the highest court both by law and by arbitrariness.

An important feature of eastern despotism is the policy of coercion, and even terror. The main purpose of violence was not to punish the criminal, but to instill fear of the authorities. One of the thinkers of the Enlightenment, Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755), noted that the peoples of Asia are governed by a stick, which must always be strong and constantly in the hands of the ruler. Fear is the only driving principle of this way of government. And if the ruler lowered the punishing sword even for a moment, everything went to dust. The regime began to slowly disintegrate. In all the despotisms of the East, fear of the supreme power, paradoxically, was combined with boundless faith in its bearers. The subjects simultaneously tremble and believe. The tyrant in their eyes appears as a formidable defender of the people, punishing evil and arbitrariness that reigns at all levels of the corrupt administration. The unity of fear and love created an internally consistent system of eastern despotism.

Oriental despotism is characterized by public and state ownership (primarily land). According to religious and moral teachings, land, water, air and other natural resources were given to all humanity. Ownership rights were recognized for private individuals, and in some cases, rights to small property, mainly housing and farming.

Under the conditions of Eastern despotism, not a single private individual had economic freedom. There was administrative and bureaucratic control over the entire economy.

In social terms, the structural basis of Eastern despotism was egalitarianism, the complete absence or extremely insignificant role of class differences, horizontal ties in general.

All ancient Eastern societies had a complex hierarchical social structure. The lowest level was occupied by slaves and dependent people. However, the majority of the population of the first states were communal farmers. They were dependent on the state, paid taxes and were regularly involved in public works (carried out state duties) - the construction of canals, fortresses, roads, temples, etc. Above the producers rose the pyramid of the state bureaucracy - tax collectors, overseers, scribes, priests and etc. This pyramid was crowned by the figure of the deified king.

Politically, the basis of Eastern despotism was the absolute dominance of the apparatus of state power. The ideal despotism consisted only of officials and the silent crowd subordinate to them. Only one thing was required from officials - unquestioning obedience.

The state bureaucratically organized apparatus of power consisted of three departments: 1) military; 2) financial and 3) public works. The military department supplied foreign slaves, the financial department sought the funds necessary to maintain the army and administrative apparatus, to feed the masses of people involved in construction, etc. The department of public works was engaged in the construction and maintenance of irrigation systems, roads, etc. As we see , military and financial departments serve as complements to the department of public works, and all three departments were the main departments of government in the Ancient East.

A characteristic feature of the political system of Eastern despotism was the existence at the grassroots level of autonomous and mostly self-governing groups. These were rural communities, guild organizations, castes, sects and other corporations, usually of a religious-production nature. The elders and leaders of these groups acted as a link between the state apparatus and the bulk of the population. It was within the framework of these collectives that the place and capabilities of each person were determined: outside of them, the life of an individual was impossible.

Rural communities, economically independent and self-governing, at the same time could not do without a central, organizing authority: a good or bad harvest here depended on the government, on whether it cared or not about irrigation.

It was on the combination of the corporate autonomy of grassroots groups and the statehood that cemented them that a fairly integral and stable system of eastern despotic power was based.

At the same time, historical monuments indicate that despotic rule in its pure form did not exist in all countries of the Ancient East and not at all stages of their long development. In the states of Ancient Sumer, the power of the ruler was significantly limited by elements of republican rule. The rulers were elected by a council of elders. The activities of the rulers were controlled by the council of nobles or the people's assembly. Thus, power was elective and limited.

In Ancient India, even during the period of the greatest strengthening of central power, the Council of Royal Officials played a significant role, which indicates the limitations of the power of the monarch. Moreover, in Ancient India, along with monarchies, there were states with a republican form of government (democratic - “Ghanas” and aristocratic - “Singhs”).

Therefore, to say that eastern despotism is a form of government in which subjects are completely dependent on the arbitrariness of the authorities is not entirely correct. Indeed, such a system existed in many ancient Asian states, but power in them, as a rule, belonged not to a single ruler, but to a large ruling group.

Paradoxically, the subjects of the eastern rulers did not imagine themselves outside of this, in their opinion, completely fair order of things. They did not seek to free themselves from it. The rigidity of the norms of everyday life was perceived by people as a normal phenomenon.

In such a society, development occurs in cycles. Its historical path graphically looks like a spring, where each turn is one cycle; 4 stages can be distinguished in it:

1) strengthening of centralized power and the state;

2) crisis of power;

3) decline of power and weakening of the state;

4) social catastrophe: revolt of the people, invasion of foreigners.

With such a cyclical development, society had a rich spiritual life, highly developed science and culture. The most ancient writing systems emerged in the East. The earliest texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt mostly represent business records, such as ledgers or prayer records. Over time, poetic texts began to be written on clay tablets or papyri, and inscriptions about important historical events were carved on stone steles.

It is in the East that the beginnings of science (arithmetic, geography, astronomy) and modern world religions are born. In Palestine, by the beginning of our era, the foundations of a new religion had been formed, which in the Roman Empire was called Christianity. Much earlier than in Europe, printing appeared in Egypt, China and other countries. The first prototypes of Egyptian books appeared in the 25th century. BC e. and Chinese - in the 13th century. BC e. The invention of paper in China (2nd century BC) was of great importance for the development of printing. The appearance of the first books in China dates back to the 7th-8th centuries, when the use of paper as a writing material was already known and the woodcut printing method (imprint from wood engraving) was first introduced.