Page 380 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

secularism 1681

God creates men, but they choose each
other. • Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469–1527)

cultural dimension of consumption patterns and eco- adaptations and experiments—for instance in the first use
nomic factors of capital formation and the scale of pro- of the horse and the camel. From this viewpoint, there is
duction. In reality there would have been complex a striking analogy (as Childe perceived) with the Indus-
interactions between the two, in a coevolution of material trial Revolution in eighteenth-century England and its
and social relationships. accompanying agricultural revolution. It is in this context
We may begin with the distinctive ecology of the —as the agrarian dimension of the “Urban Revolution”—
region. It is no accident that this area, the meeting point that the secondary-products revolution is best interpreted.
of Africa and Eurasia, between the Mediterranean and the
Andrew Sherratt
Indian Ocean, should so consistently have produced
innovations in material and indeed spiritual life. Its diver-
sity of habitats included highlands and lowlands, forests Further Reading
and deserts, steppes and inland seas, whose contrasts Adams, R. M. (1981). Heartland of cities: Surveys of ancient settlement
both supported distinctive floras and faunas and pro- and land use on the central floodplain of the Euphrates. Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.
moted specialization and exchange. Its long history of
Barber, E. J.W. (1990). Prehistoric textiles:The development of cloth in the
mixed farming encouraged experimentation and the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean. Prince-
emergence of distinctive local specialities. Recent evi- ton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Burmeister, S. (Ed.). (2004). Rad und Wagen: der Ursprung einer Inno-
dence suggests that milk-products were in use by the sixth vation.Wagen im Vorderen Orient und Europa. [Wheels and wheeled
millennium BCE, perhaps as early as the use of pottery vehicles: The origin of an innovation. Wheeled vehicles in the Near
East and Europe]. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern.
(which would have been important in making use of it),
Childe,V. G. (1936). Man makes himself (The Library of Science and Cul-
and a similar time depth may be implied for the emer- ture, No. 5). London: Watts & Co.
gence of woolly breeds of sheep in western Iran. Cattle Frank, A. G., & Gills, B. (Eds.). (1993). The modern world system: Five
hundred years or five thousand? London: Routledge.
may have been used for treading grain or even to draw Goodman, J., Lovejoy, P. E., & Sherratt, A. (Eds.). (1995). Consuming
simple threshing sledges. Use of wild olives, grapes, and habits: Drugs in history and anthropology. London: Routledge.
Levine, M. Renfrew, C., & Boyle, K. (Eds.). (2003). Prehistoric steppe
dates may be equally old in the areas where they grow
adaptation and the horse. Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute
naturally. Monographs.
Nevertheless there is a perceptible horizon of change Piggott, S. (1983). The earliest wheeled transport: From the Atlantic coast
to the Caspian Sea. London: Thames & Hudson.
associated with the emergence of the first cities in the Sherratt,A. (1997). Economy and society in prehistoric Europe: Changing
fourth millennium BCE. It is in this context that we may perspectives. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Shortland, A. J. (Ed.). (2001).The social context of technological change:
first observe the use of donkeys as pack animals and the
Egypt and the Near East, 1650–1550 BC. Oxford, UK: Oxbow.
employment of pairs of draft oxen to pull threshing
sledges, plows, and solid-wheeled wagons, as well as the
keeping of large numbers of wool-bearing sheep and
dairy cattle. Some of these activities are reflected in the
earliest uses of writing, in the form of pictographic sym- Secularism
bols on clay tablets, recording the delivery of commodi-
ties at Mesopotamian temple centers. It seems likely that ecularism believes that everything can be empirically
this new scale of production was instrumental in apply- Sproven. It celebrates a subjective truth that sophisti-
ing what had previously been small-scale regional spe- cated people can discern without any pretense to provi-
cialities on an industrial scale to produce commodities, dential inspiration or knowledge. Sins and redemption
some of which were used as exports, and that these pat- are not the focus of human life. Personal responsibility
terns of production and consumption were propagated and mortality are presumed rather than posterity and
throughout the region and beyond, stimulating further mythical prowess. Secularism is in contrast to faiths that