Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Charles L. Redman
SOS 111, Sustainable Cities
Arizona State University
Issues of Concern
The introduction of
agriculture
The beginnings of
urban society
Reflects processes
and human dynamics
still operating today
Mobility
People
moved to
available
resources
Agriculture
Planting
Cultivation
Harvesting
Control of
propagation
Implication of Agriculture
Deforestation for
fields and fuel
Extinctions due to
habitat loss,
hunting, and
competitors
Humans managing
ecosystem for their
own benefit
Redesign of
hydrology to serve
human purposes
Mounds of the
Near East
Archaeologists
excavates these
mounds to reveal
ancient cities layer
by layer, each one
representing a city
Fundamental Change in
the Human-Landscape
Relationship
The ability to produce and store
more than you can eat/use
Concept of private property and
ascribed status
Rationales to expand production
beyond immediate needs
Ability of some to accumulate
these surplus goods and
transform them into enduring
prestige items associated with
elevated status
Breakthroughs of
Urban Society
Produce more
Assemble more people
Specialize in production
Establish a sacred order
Provide security through a
monopoly on the use of
force
Create a Social
Hierarchy (i.e. class
society)
Distance people from one
another
Results in diverse
perspectives and goals
Established a
shared ideology that
serves to legitimize
the emerging
differences in the
social order
A social order
that manifested
itself in great
monuments built
to demonstrate
hierarchy through
performance and
scale
Ur III Dynasty of
Mesopotamia 2000BC
Perhaps the first world
empire
Math and science
Laws and literature
Great builders and traders
Humans are amazingly successful at selforganizing to promote their survival in the face of
virtually any environmental challenge, but there
are unanticipated costs
We manage our ecosystems according to our
perception of the opportunities and our valuation
of the alternatives, yet some impacts threaten
our survival
In general, we transform biota so that their net
yield for humans is increased while native biota
are degraded, we still dont know the result
More Lessons