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Rise of the Early Roman Republic

Reflections on Becoming Roman

by Thomas L. Dynneson (Author)
©2018 Monographs XXXII, 382 Pages

Summary

An audaciously daring narrative, this text presents an overview of the early history of Rome, focusing the reader’s attention to those distinctive and often hidden cultural features that contributed to create a unique ancient Roman mindset and civic outlook. Using an historical format, Thomas L. Dynneson addresses these cultural forces which ultimately shaped the Romans into the ancient world’s most powerful military city-state.
Comprised of numerous values and beliefs, the Romans sought to develop their citizens as a cohesive whole. This approach enabled a mastering of both the practical and utilitarian tactics for solving problems, an expression of classical intellectualism. Identifying this sense of idealism paralleled with the Romans embodiment of sacrifice to overcome all obstacles, the author explores several features of becoming Roman. Within this text, each section is designed to pull together the general historical elements which helped to create a unique Roman citizenship. The final section of each chapter contains further analysis, including the author’s narrative regarding the general sources used, and the second containing a review of one exceptional recommended reading. The later chapters of the book provide a special "Recent Scholarship" section, which explores the work of recent scholars’ "revisionists" perspectives related to the traditional ancient sources.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author(s)/editor(s)
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Preface
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • What Is Civism?
  • What Is Citizenship?
  • What Is Acculturation?
  • What Is Urbanization?
  • What Is Assimilation?
  • Assumptions
  • Recent Scholarship
  • Introduction
  • The Founding of Rome
  • The Age of Kings
  • The Formation of the Republic
  • The Evolution of Rome
  • The Middle Republic
  • Empire Building
  • Part One: Creating the Roman Mindset
  • Chapter One: Numa Pompilius
  • The Life and Times of Numa
  • A Philosopher King?
  • Numa on Religion
  • Political Life
  • A Call to Service
  • Justice by Reason
  • The Justified War
  • Civic Harmony
  • Death of Numa
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Two: Roman Religion
  • The Nature of the Gods
  • Public and Private Religion
  • The Triads
  • Numa’s Religious Institutions
  • Priestly Orders
  • Priestly Colleges
  • Divination
  • Triumphs and Games
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Three: Landscape of the Sacred City
  • City Setting
  • Sacred Origins of the City
  • Landscape of Rome
  • Urban Works
  • The Roman Pomerium
  • Street Patterns
  • The Cloaca Maxima
  • The Forum
  • The Temple of Jupiter
  • Capitol and Citadel
  • Queen Juno Moneta
  • Tiber Bridges
  • City Precincts
  • City Housing (dominus)
  • City Festivals
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Readings
  • Chapter Four: Roman Virtue
  • The Flawed Hero
  • Modifying Greek Influences
  • Evolving Roman Virtus
  • “Might Makes Right”
  • Manliness
  • The Better Man
  • Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
  • Publius Horatius Cocles
  • Gaius Mucius Scaevola
  • Symbols of Virtus
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Five: The Legend of Lucretia
  • The Legend of Lucretia
  • The Rape
  • The Rationale
  • The Banishment of Tyranny
  • The Attempted Reclamation
  • Legend as History
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Resources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Six: Roman Education
  • Origins of Roman Education
  • Enculturation
  • The Social Landscape
  • Motherhood and Education
  • Education in Manliness
  • The Coming of Age
  • Military Training
  • Duty and Tradition
  • The Curricula
  • Religious Instruction
  • Religion as Civics
  • Oath-taking
  • Early Roman Schools
  • School Booths
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Resources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Part Two: Roman Historical Cultural Origins
  • Chapter Seven: Foundation Myths and Reality
  • Reconstructing History
  • Foundation Myths
  • The Trojan Immigrants
  • The Twins
  • The She-Wolf
  • Historic Rome
  • Village Culture
  • Tribal Kinship
  • Roman Urbanization
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Eight: The Seven Kings of Rome
  • The Early Roman Constitution
  • The Seven Kings of Rome
  • Romulus (753–716 BCE)
  • Numa Pompilius (716–672 BCE)
  • Tullus Hostilius (672–640 BCE)
  • Ancus Marcius (640–616 BCE)
  • Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (616–578 BCE)
  • Servius Tullius (578–534 BCE)
  • Lucius Tarquin Superbus (534–509 BCE)
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Nine: Tribalism and Civilization
  • Latium Artifacts Timetable
  • Latial Cultural Development (see J. C. Meyer, 1983)
  • Tribalism
  • Tribalism According to Morgan
  • Social Developmentalists
  • What Does It Mean?
  • Civilization
  • Collectivism and Individualism
  • The Urban Village (City Precincts)
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Readings
  • Part Three: Acculturation and Assimilation
  • Chapter Ten: The Etruscans of Etruria
  • Etruscan Civilization
  • Origins
  • Ancestral Theories
  • Archeological Evidence
  • Pre Bronze Age 12,000–2000 BCE
  • Early and Middle Bronze Age 2000–1300 BCE
  • Late and Final Bronze Age 1300–900 BCE
  • Early Iron Age (Villanovan) 900–700 BCE
  • Orientalizing 700–570 BCE
  • Archaic 570–470 BCE
  • Classical 470–300 BCE
  • Hellenistic 300–31 BCE
  • Advanced Cultual Elements
  • The Etruscan Confederation
  • Agriculture, Engineering, and Trade
  • Empire Building
  • Etruscan/Roman Relationships
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Eleven: The Hellenes of Magna Graecia
  • Early Exploration and Settlement
  • The Sikel
  • The Corinthians and Laconians
  • Deception and Colonization
  • Greek City-States of Magna Graecia
  • Kyme (Ischia founded circa 1051 BCE)
  • Metapontion (Metabus founded circa 773 BCE)
  • Sybaris (circa founded 708 BCE)
  • Kroton (Croton, Crotone founded circa 708 BCE)
  • Taras (founded circa 706 BCE)
  • Lokroi (Locri, Epizephrian Locris founded circa 773/678 BCE)
  • Rhegion (Reggio, Rhegium Julium founded circa 737 BCE)
  • Siris (founded circa twelfth century BCE)
  • Kaulonia (Calonia, Caulon founded circa 760 BCE)
  • Poseidonia (Paestum founded circa 700 BCE)
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Readings
  • Chapter Twelve: International Seagoing Trading System
  • Historical Developments
  • The Carthaginians
  • Carthagian Origins
  • Myths and Legends
  • Social Institutions
  • The Political Institutions
  • Military Leadership
  • Carthagian Citizenship
  • Maritime Empire
  • Etrurian (Etruscan) Ports-of-Call
  • Reflection on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Resources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Thirteen: Invasion of the Northern Barbarians
  • Celtic Mythical Origins
  • Elements of Celtic Culture
  • Nomadic Restlessness
  • Social Structures and Virtues
  • The “Warriors Brethren”
  • Male Enculturation
  • Celtic Invasion
  • Later Invasions
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Part Four: Political Elements of the Roman City-State
  • Chapter Fourteen: The Patricians
  • Origins of the Aristocracy
  • Origins of the Senate
  • The Roman Family
  • Marriage and Aristocracy
  • The Tribal Society
  • The “Traditional” History
  • The Early City-State
  • Military Brotherhood
  • Aristocratic Acculturation
  • The Hellenization of the Aristocracy
  • The Dawn of the Republic
  • Recent Scholarship
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Fifteen: The Plebeians
  • The Empowered Oligarchy
  • Struggle of the Orders
  • Manumitted Slaves
  • A Weakened Aristocracy?
  • Urbanization and Citizenship
  • Catagories of Plebeians
  • The Destitute Rural Proletariat
  • Urban Proletariat
  • Self-Sufficient Small-plot Farmers
  • Wealthy “New Men”
  • Plebian Secession
  • Recent Scholarship
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Resources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Sixteen: The Comitia Curiata and the Hoplite
  • The Ancient Curia
  • Origins of the Curia
  • Tribal Unification
  • The Military Role of the Curia
  • Origins of the Hoplite Military System
  • The Migrating Military Clans
  • The Legend of the Three Hundred
  • The Tribal “Constitution”
  • The Roman City State
  • The Role of Romulus
  • The Power to Rule
  • Imperium
  • People Power
  • Recent Scholarship
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Resources
  • Suggested Further Reading
  • Chapter Seventeen: Servius and the Rise of the Roman City-State
  • The Consolidation of Rome
  • Credited Achievements of Servius
  • Servius’ Military Reforms
  • Seasonal Warfare
  • The New Tribes
  • The Comitia Centuriata
  • Modern Scholarship
  • Reflections on becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Readings
  • Part Five: The Emergence of the Roman Republic
  • Chapter Eighteen: Foundations of the Roman Republic
  • Republican Reforms
  • Forms of the Consular System
  • Recordkeeping
  • Separated or Divided Tasks
  • Constitutional Safeguards
  • Republican Exective Positions
  • Consuls
  • Praetors
  • Quaestors
  • Interrex
  • Dictator
  • Censors
  • Tribunes of the Plebs
  • Military Tribunes
  • Aediles
  • Nominations and Elections
  • Republican Assemblies
  • The Comitia Curiata
  • The Comitia Tributa
  • The Comitia Centuriata
  • Recent Scholarship
  • The Ancient Sources
  • Reflections on Becoming Roman
  • Related Chapter Sources
  • Suggested Further Readings
  • Conclusion
  • Creating of the Roman Mindset
  • The Life of the Mind
  • The “Ideal” Government
  • The Human Mind
  • The Domain of Mind
  • Societal Education
  • The Roman Mentality
  • Myth and Legend
  • Religion
  • Custom and Tradition (mos maiorum)
  • Domineering Aristocracy
  • The Paterfamilia
  • Military Virtues
  • The Cityscape
  • Pragmatism
  • Lasting Roman Heritage
  • Appendix
  • Bibliography
  • Primary Sources
  • Secondary Sources
  • Index

| ix →

Acknowledgments

In the course of many years of research, this author had been fortunate enough to have been assisted by many friends and colleagues. In particular, my wife Barbara Jean Mosshart Dynneson had read and edited several version of each chapter as she has edited the manuscript many time and made many helpful suggestions to help make this volume more concise, clear, and more readable. In addition, the librarians at The University of the Permian Basin have provided assistance in acquiring works not generally available from local sources. In particular, Ms. Anita Voorhies who provided select books from libraries over many years of dedicated service in library loans. She will be long remembered and cherished by all she has served over many years at UTPB. In addition, the library staff, including Director Schultz (deceased), who ordered new works that pertained to my research. The administration of the University, especially Dr. David Watts, accepted my intellectual works within the University as a special archival collection entitled: The Thomas L. Dynneson Collection that is now housed within the general UTPB Archive. The University of Texas library at Austin and its special librarian Katherine Strickland provided valuable maps from their Italian map collection from the Government Documents, Maps and Electronic Information Services. The Getty Museum provided several images from its Roman artifact collection. The Minneapolis Institute of Art provided an image for the cover of this volume. The image, called Doryphoros, is a circa 120 BCE Roman replica of a Greek ← ix | x → statue of a spear thrower. Although the spear is missing, its original inspired many later works possibly including Michelangelo’s 16th century David. This copy of the Doryphoros is a pride item of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The Greek statue (Doryphoros) is called Polykleitos (Greek) meaning Spear Thrower and the original was cast in bronze (the Roman copies in marble). The Greek statue dates c. 450–440 BCE. The original marble Roman copy is located in Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. I am in particular debt to Professor Jeremiah Reedy of Macalester College for his assistance with Latin terms that were used through the manuscript. I am indebted to the editors at Peter Lang Publishing in New York City and I would like to remember Dr. Heidi Burns (deceased) who gave me great encouragement from the beginning of this work. Although I have greatly mourned the loss of Dr. Burns, I was fortunate also to be assisted by Michelle Salyga and Jackie Pavlovic, and so many others at Peter Lang Publishing.

| xi →

Preface

Any author who is attempting to write about the Regal and Early Roman Republic is faced with the problem of knowing almost nothing of the validity or reliability of his resource material. Livy, the most important ancient writer about the Republic, used many sources that no longer exist. He wrote a multiple volume history during the time of Augustus and was working from sources that contained many distortions or even fabrications. In addition, he was attempting to reconstruct a history that had occurred seven or more centuries before his time and even before the existence of Roman historians.

Many contemporary historians of today are busy examining the events that Livy relates to us about the founding of Rome, the Regal Period, and the founding and development of the Roman Republic. Much of this work is aimed at doubting some of the work of Livy and the work of his predecessors as based on myth or legend. In other words, much of this contemporary scholarship appears to be entering the forest of the Roman past and shaking all of its trees in search of facts or truths that actually may be valid. This academic skepticism is the result of a natural characteristic of modern scholarship. At the same time, one can detect an element of doubt in their skeptical declarations in that while calling much of this history “myth” or “legend”, they then insert caveats that these myths actually may contain “an historical core”. The Homeric Epic of the Trojan War was, for a very ← xi | xii → long time, considered a myth or fable, but then Schliemann excavated a ruin in Turkey, Troy VII, that existed within the area and the timeframe of the Iliad.

It also should be remembered that Livy was skeptical about his sources, as was Plutarch. Following the founding of the Roman Republic, Plutarch reported that all the accounts related to the founding of the history of the city were destroyed by fire in 386 BCE when the city was burned by the Celts; thus much of this early history is the product of an unreliable reconstructed oral tradition.

It is a fact that contemporary writers on the Roman Republic are dealing with materials that ancient writers may have either invented or greatly embellished. This problem makes it almost impossible to make confidently any pronouncements of the Regal, Early and Middle Republic or its preceding periods. Nevertheless, scholars continue to research in this darkness for insights regarding persons and events that help to explain the nature of the development of ancient Roman culture.

This author decided that, even though the early accounts are tainted by myths, inventions, and embellishments, they offer a valuable insight into the mindset of the Romans, especially those values and virtues that were maintained to shape a shared perspective of civism as a measure of what they maintained as their ideal characteristics of their citizenship. In addition, this author is impressed with the more recent work of archeologists, who over the years, are finding solid evidence that somewhat parallels this most corrupted literary record of the dark years of the Roman past.

Reflections on Becoming Roman

“Reflections on becoming Roman” is based on the author’s attempt to examine ancient and modern historical narratives regarding the formation of an emerging and early Roman corporate identity. This identity is related to a growing awareness of their citizenship in relation to the emerging Roman city-state. To accomplish this goal, the author has spent several years examining a variety of sources, both ancient and modern, including ancient narratives, as well as various more contemporary historical models related to the advancement of Roman urbanization. Consequently, in the study of the Regal and Early Roman Republic, research models have been used extensively to analyze sources such as those provided by Livy, Diodorus, Dionysius, Dio Cassius and Polybius, which are literary accounts.

But in addition, this volume also will include some insights from the work of recent scholars who have focused on demographics, social mobility, life expectancy, population increase and decrease, the size of agricultural estates, the distribution of land, a growing dependency on slavery, marriage and family life, etc. More ← xii | xiii → important still, this volume will focus, to some degree, on early Roman history that has been the subject of early, as well as recent, archeological investigations in light of the fact that this work has proven valuable in affirming or rejecting the ancient narrative of the early sources. At the same time, archeological research also has been supported by investigative scholars who have re-examined the literary record based on the annalists and fasti chronology constructions that have been used to undermine some critical ancient events that have become the basis that has led to the creation of fabrications and fictions related to patricians and plebeians and the “struggle of the two orders.” The basis for this fabrication is a long-running class conflict that has led to a social revolution that now has become the center of a scholarly investigation and argumentation.

This author, in attempting to reconstruct the development of a unified Roman cultural identity, has examined both ancient and modern narratives from five specific perspectives which include: civism, citizenship, acculturation, urbanization, and assimilation. These specific perspectives will be applied to Roman historical events that are associated with the transition from a Roman tribal culture to a broader Roman cosmopolitan urban culture related to the development of the city-state over the course of historical time related to the ninth century BCE to the third century BCE. Therefore, this examination will focus on these five specific perspectives as described by the author in the following explanatory narratives.

What Is Civism?

Civism was developed as a concept, as well as a means, to help explain the growing complexities that contributed to the development of western civilization. In a 2001 book this author described civism as “the means used by society and/or the state to cultivate the principles of the idealized citizen” (Dynneson, 2001, Preface, p. xiii). Furthermore in the Introduction, this author wrote:

In a 2008 book this author described civism according to the following statement:

More important still:

Based on the above definitions and descriptions, this author also would add that civism consists of important perceptive elements that are used to communicate the importance of shared values that unify and harmonize a society according to shared social, economic and political values and virtues. Consequently, civism consists of both overt and covert symbols, signs and messages that appeal to the citizen’s sense of loyalty and patriotism, even in the face of divisive forces such as social conflict and class division.

Civism also consists of both formal institutional resources, as well as cultural processes that are used in the shaping of citizenship. While civism in one form may pertain to the various techniques of propaganda, in another form it may consist of the valuing of intellectual processes related to critical thinking. The process or technique of civism depends on the nature of the culture and the means used by the state to create a unified citizenship body.

In his 2015 book, David Brooks explored the nature of character in the United States, which this author also considers an important element of American civism. What is so disturbing about Brooks’ findings is the apparent loss of those internal mindsets (i.e. sacrifice) as related to what he calls “Adam II”, which are related to the individual moral development in the United States since the Great Depression and World War II.

According to Brooks, American culture is in a state of decline due, at least in part, to a decline in a focus on the development of individual ability to moral self-criticism, and instead, to place a much greater emphasis on Adam I. Adam ← xiv | xv → I is what he calls The “Big Me”, or the celebration of self, and the promotion of attention gaining demands for his material success. In other words, if his conclusions are correct, American society has lost, or is losing, its attachment to its moral social roots, not to mention the cultural heritage of the ancient civilizations. In other words, Greece and Rome, it was long believed, provided the essentials of a Western identity, and this identity included an understanding of such elements as courage, goodness, and manliness.

Worse still, according to Brooks, American college students are becoming moral illiterates as proven by the research of writers, including Christian Smith of Notre Dame University. When asked about a moral dilemma one student answered: “that is what happens when you do not have the coins to put into a parking meter”. Brooks supports this argument of decline in the following analysis related to printed literature. Brooks complains that words related to morality, as it pertains to character development are on the decline.

This study also is based on the assumption that early Roman citizenship during the Regal Period and Early and Middle Republic was, in part, the result of various elements of civism, or the adaption of values and virtues, that were emphasized to generate a body of worthy citizens. This model attempts to explain the shaping of public perceptions of those idealized behaviors that unify and harmonize societal and cultural membership in the state. In this regard it is to the advantage of the members of an evolving political elite to create and maintain a general political ideology that would help them to determine the nature of social, economic, and political relationships as was reflected in the constitution and the laws of the state.

What Is Citizenship?

The root concept of citizenship had its origins within the family, and also became associated with the extended family of blood related ties or kinship bonds. The concept grew more complex with the extended family in the form of the clan (moiety) and the extended tribal structures. The concept of citizenship, in other words, gained its social, economic, and political conceptual understandings with the kinship affiliations of social groups, which is today the most familiar form of the precept, which exists in an almost universal form of human existence. With ← xv | xvi → the formation of the family, sanguine kinship forms of related membership (citizenship) became more complex and more diverse.

This complexity was expressed in the ways that families became organized and the systems that were used to trace one’s kinship related structures. For example, before the family kinship, relationships (membership) were traced through the female. This may have been before the rise of legal forms of marriage. Consequently when the mother had children, kinship and all of its related understandings were traced through the female line of descent. Once the reproduction process became understood, marriage appeared as a means to trace bloodlines. Consequently, some cultures began to require marriage as a means of legitimizing kinship, and some cultures began to trace kinship associations through the male line of descent.

With the formation of the political state, usually in the early form of the city-state, a formal, or more legal form of citizenship appeared as an aspect of urbanization. Citizenship as a formal and legal understanding became much more complex as citizenship came to represent a legal status in association with an extended human family that included non-kinship related social groups or families. Within the urban complex these civil families formed more complex associations related to residency and not just to kinship lines of descent.

The creation of the city-state created new non-kinship relationships. In the ancient world, the city-state consisted of a defensive fortress or citadel, often with surrounding defensive walls and limited access gates that protected temple(s) that contained a treasury and a variety of public buildings and a central market place. The occupants of the city-state, including those in the outlying districts, were recognized as its citizens, which included protections and rights. In addition, these recognized members of the city-state had obligations that typically included fiscal responsibilities to maintain the public area of the urban center and an obligation to defend the city and its territory should it be attacked or invaded by outsiders.

City-state citizenship tended to create new social relationships that had the effect of creating social structures and stratifications, as well as social roles. Citizenship in the ancient world became a classification that had participatory rights related to political decision-making, and in most cases, citizenship was a special social status that was reserved or held in common with those male heads of families that were obligated to defend the city-state under the leadership of a warrior-king. In addition, these king’s men were expected to pledge their loyalty to a leader, usually a king, and to serve the city-state in many capacities, including fighting in wars, building and repairing the public edifices of the city, including its citadel and temple(s), and maintaining the city’s defensive walls. ← xvi | xvii →

The wealthiest families came to consist of an urban aristocracy that also served as military warriors and as advisors to the king, as a king’s council, or council of elders. As the most prominent citizens of the city, the aristocrats were deemed equal to the king, and upon the death of the king, one from their ranks would become a successor to the king. If the kingship were in the form of a dynasty, his eldest son often would succeed the king.

As time passed and urbanization become more complex, including the development of commercial activities, tensions between the king and the aristocrats might lead to rebellion and revolution. In some cases, a successful revolution might lead to a new form of government in which the aristocracy deposed the king and replaced him with new a form of political structure that contained mixed elements of rule, such as those described by Plato and Aristotle. This mixed form of government might include various elements of kinship, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. Furthermore, new social orders might take on new forms in an urban or cosmopolitan setting based on a demand for new social, economic, or political status. These new urban classes once were called upon to defend or to serve the state and would likely come to demand a political voice or even full citizenship in the state. In time, they might demand a share in benefits of citizenship and a participatory role in the affairs of the state, especially in a state that came to rely on its urban population as a military resource.

What Is Acculturation?

In the ancient world, civilization was, to a large extent, spread through contacts with other cultures or the adoption of helpful adoptable cultural elements. Useful cultural elements came to include new technologies related to farming, which included the domestication of plants and animals, irrigation techniques, and cultivation inventions, such the metal tipped plow that could be pulled by domesticated animals such as oxen. In addition to new technologies, useful cultural elements came to include a system of accounting and writing, especially those systems related to calendars, accounting systems, number systems, etc. Commonly spread from one culture to another, were the ways of doing things in terms of textiles and styles of dress, as well as ways of using materials, such as construction materials for building purposes.

Acculturation became an agency for the spread of ideas ranging from means of transportation, such as the invention of the wheel, to writing and accounting systems, but also included ideas related to social arrangements and to trading and commercial economic systems. Cultural traits also include ideas related to ← xvii | xviii → ways of organizing groups of people in a society, such as the ways of identifying social relationships and ways to create an orderly society. In time, these ways would include the use of legal systems and scientific systems, such as the observation of the movement of heavenly bodies (also associated with religion), as well as mathematics and the nature of matter. Especially important were those means, ways, and technologies associated with military arrangements, weapons, the organization of military units and martial specialties. In addition, there was the acquisition of various strategies for defending or attacking an invading hostile army.

Also related to the spread of cultural elements were those ideas related to the gods, the worship of the gods, and the role that the gods were deemed important in the affairs of a city or city-state. Domestically, religion in all its forms became a concern of the family, clan, and society as it pertained to life and death issues. These issues included ideas related to an after-life served as a means of detecting or influencing the domain of the spiritual world in communication with the human world.

As time passed and as cultures advanced to higher levels of civilization, new ways of thinking about reality also advanced. These advancements came in the form of philosophy, mathematics, and science, especially those bodies of knowledge related to the manufacture of commercial goods and technologies associated with land and sea transportation. These advancements also were in connection with the exchange of goods, the use of money as a system of universal exchange. The spread and the adoption of these cultural elements were promoted by advancements in urbanization, which greatly sped up acculturation and the exchange of cultural traits related to more sophisticated means stimulated by the growing complexities of city life.

Details

Pages
XXXII, 382
Year
2018
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433145940
ISBN (PDF)
9781453918814
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433145957
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433134579
DOI
10.3726/978-1-4539-1881-4
Language
English
Publication date
2018 (February)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2018. XXXII, 382 pp., 20 b/w ill.

Biographical notes

Thomas L. Dynneson (Author)

Thomas L. Dynneson served as Professor of Anthropology and Education at the University of Texas and as Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, specializing in education and anthropology. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He edited and co-authored several books and articles pertaining to citizenship development, anthropology education, European history, and ancient history and philosophy.

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