Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T18:22:35.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Agriculture and urbanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Daphne E. Gallagher  and
Roderick J. McIntosh
Edited by
Graeme Barker  and
Candice Goucher
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the complex relationship between agriculture and urbanism, from its central role enabling the development of larger and denser settlements over time, to varying strategies and choices in agricultural practice. New technologies are increasingly aiding archaeologists in documenting the spatial networks of these urban centres. While classic, low-tech methods like pedestrian survey are still among the most thorough methods of locating archaeological sites within an urban catchment, this form of research is inherently limited in scale. These expanded archaeological data sets on urban-hinterland relationships have both increased our ability to challenge the standard narrative and illustrated its persistence. The modern understandings of the relationship between urbanism and agriculture continue to erode long-held beliefs, the standard narrative, that urban zones were highly centralized systems abstracted from their hinterland, which provided agricultural products for the city under despotic control.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 186 - 209
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further reading

Blanton, R.E. and Fargher, L.. Collective Action in the Formation of Pre-modern States. New York: Springer, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boserup, E. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. University of Chicago Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. ‘The urban revolution.’ Town Planning Review, 21 (1950), 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowgill, G.L. ‘Origins and development of urbanism: archaeological perspectives.’ Annual Review of Anthropology, 33 (2004), 525–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, C.T., Leisz, S.J., and Weishampel, J.F.. ‘Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (2012), 12916–21.Google Scholar
Heckenberger, M.J., Russell, J.C., Fausto, C., et al. ‘Pre-Columbian urbanism, anthropogenic landscapes, and the future of the Amazon.’ Science, 321 (2008), 1214–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kron, G. ‘Food production.’ In Schiedel, W. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy. Cambridge University Press, 2012. 156–74.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. and Sabloff, J. (eds.). The Ancient City: New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research, 2008.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. and Stanish, C. (eds.). Agricultural Strategies. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marston, J.M. ‘Archaeological markers of agricultural risk management.’ Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 30 (2011), 190–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAnany, P.A. and Yoffee, N. (eds.). Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
McIntosh, R.J. Ancient Middle Niger: Urbanism and the Self-Organizing Landscape. Cambridge University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
McIntosh, S.K. ‘Modeling political organization in large-scale settlement clusters: a case study from the inland Niger delta, Mali.’ In McIntosh, S.K. (ed.), Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1999. 66–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menze, B.H. and Ur, J.A.. ‘Mapping patterns of long-term settlement in northern Mesopotamia at a large scale.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (2012), 778–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrison, K.D. ‘The intensification of production: archaeological approaches.’ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 1 (1994), 111–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogundiran, A. ‘Four millennia of cultural history in Nigeria (ca. 2000 bc–ad 1900): archaeological perspectives.’ Journal of World Prehistory, 19 (2005), 133–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, S. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was. Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Redman, C.L. Human Impact on Ancient Environments. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Rosen, A. Civilizing Climate: Social Responses to Climate Change in the Ancient Near East. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T., de Escobar, A.G.M., and Cobean, R.H. (eds.). Urbanism in Mesoamerica. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Smith, A. The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. (ed.). The Social Construction of Ancient Cities. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Stone, G.D. Settlement Ecology: The Social and Spatial Organization of Kofyar Agriculture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Storey, G.D. (ed.). Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Trigger, B. Understanding Early Civilizations. Cambridge University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. and Sabloff, J.. ‘Classic period collapse of the Central Maya lowlands: insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (2012), 13908–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van de Mieroop, M. The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, M. The City, trans. Martindale, D. and Neuwirth, G.. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958 [1921].Google Scholar
Weber, M.Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. 3 vols. New York: Bedminster Press, 1968 [1922].Google Scholar
Wittfogel, K.A. Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.Google Scholar
Zeder, M.A. Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient Near East. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×