Monday 6 November 2012

Monday 6 November 2012

Civilization project: Application of theories
I judged whether or not the theories could be applied:

• Paul Wheatley - yes (cosmomagical city: revolves around a religious centre)
• Lewis Mumford - partially (agrees with Wheatley's, but there was no warfare due to expanding cities and controversy because of religion)
• Gerda Lerner - no (there is no evidence that women were superior to men or in any way worshipped or had higher status)
• Karl Marx - partially (there was a class system, but no major conflict between the classes, the working class supported the elite as mentioned in a source)

I will present Paul Wheatley's and Lewis Mumford's theories:

Theories:

Paul Wheatley's cosmomagical theory

Wheatley's Cosmomagical city is the theory that mostly applies to the Huang He's Shang dynasty. The ancient capital has been identified as Shangqiu. The Shang city had a huge religious center where the king lived and worked with his family. The royal court along with high officials were also active in the centre. The centre was the political centre, but remained the centre of ancestral worship as well. 

The centre was the home to political hierarchy and contributed to the development of the complex economic and social system.

Even though there were many small polities, they all surrounded the capital and used it as its centre. 

The graves were of major importance to he dynasties of the Huang He civilization. Archaeologists have discovered  many of the Shang dynasty's graves in Shangqiu. In the graves there is evidence of more than one person in each grave. This is not interpreted as one grave for multiple people, but a grave for one person where humans were sacrificed for the dead person. Human sacrifice was common in the Shang dynasty and was part of their religious belief. This evidence contributes to the possibility to apply the Cosmomagical theory.

Lewis Mumford's theory

Mumfords theory agrees with Wheatley's since they both believe that a city revolved around a religious centre. However Mumford's theory says that many cities of different religions expanded to the extent that they grew together. The growing together resulted in warfare and conflict. There was no war between cities during the Shang dynasties rule, therefore Mumford's theory cannot be applied to the Shang dynasty's rule of the Huang He civilization.  

- Filippa