[extropy-chat] A Stateless Civilization?

Technotranscendence neptune at superlink.net
Sun Dec 4 19:39:30 UTC 2005


Not if I'm reading Thompson correctly.  Of course, the big problem is that he's going from physical evidence that's from around 3,000 BCE.  Unlike with other examples of anarchic or stateless societies -- the key recent one being Iceland from about 900 CE to 1200 CE -- there's no oral or written history of this civilization.  It's written works remain un-deciphered.  So, the case is based on archaeological evidence and arguments from that.

Regards,

Dan
http://uweb1.superlink.net/~neptune/
  From: Dirk Bruere 
  To: ExI chat list 
  Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 10:42 AM
  Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] A Stateless Civilization?

  On 12/4/05, Technotranscendence <neptune at superlink.net> wrote:
    Sadly, Thomas J. Thompson's "An Ancient Stateless Civilization: Bronze
    Age India and the State in History" is only currently available in the
    print edition of _The Independent Review_ 10(3) [Winter 2006].  Anyhow, 
    I recommend it even if I'm not completely satisfied with Thompson's
    argument for Harappan civilization being stateless...  But he offers a
    compelling case given the limits of the evidence.

    If he's right, this would be a whole civilization and the stateless 
    period seems to have lasted about 700 years.  I've noticed a tendency
    among critics of anarchism to claim that no society of any appreciable
    size has remained anarchist for long.  When one points to Medieval
    Iceland, one problem is, of course, that even though the stateless
    period lasted about three centuries, Icelandic society during that time
    never formed cities -- it was an essential non-urban or pre-urban
    society.  Well, Harappan civilization did.  So, if the stateless thesis 
    is correct, it presents an interesting case of a long lived, _urban_
    civilization without a state.


  Not even a city-state?

  Dirk
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