Pre-Modern States

Two Common Assumptions about “Pre-Modern States”

• pre-modern states developed with little systematic knowledge of the populations they governed
• [CHECK] pre-modern states had limited ability to reshape everyday civil society; instead, they relied on indirect rule through local intermediaries over top-down social engineering

Examples of “Pre-Modern States”

The Igbos of West Africa

a comprehensive explanatory framework	• a system of folk beliefs accounting for the origin of everything in the world • explains the functions of both heavenly and earthly bodies • provides moral guidance for conduct toward gods, spirits, and ancestors
a populated universe	• the world is inhabited by invisible and visible forces • three coexisting categories of persons: ◦ the living ◦ the dead ◦ those yet to be born
continuity across realms	• reincarnation serves as the bridge linking the living and the dead • time and community are cyclical, not linear - the ancestral and the unborn are present participants in the social world

• Means of preserving the history and practices of the community

• Must care for the environment

  → future generations (including those reincarnated) can experience the same quality of life

• death seen as a trip to the afterlife; emphasis on funeral ceremonies

• good karma - treat environment with respect, as it provides the people with all of their needs; treat the dead with respect, as they may one day come back and protect you

The KayapO people of the Brazilian Amazon

environment as an integrated system	social organizations	ceremony as social and ecological glue
one interlocking system: community, plant/forest, and wildlife management	communal society grounded in principles of egalitarianism	rich ceremonial life binds members into a single collective entity
goal is to increase biological diversity - not simply conserve or extract		storytelling: histories and legends transmitted to younger generations at ceremonies
the forest supplies all subsistence needs		dance: celebrates nature and marks the changing of the seasons

• The complexity of this society contradicts the goal of states to simplify a community
• emphasis on diversity, and not misusing the resources that nature/society provides

The Balinese “Subak” of Indonesia

graph TD
	A[The Subak] --> B[literally “the irrigation society”]
	B --> C[devoted specifically and exclusively to irrigated farming]
	C --> D[the wet/dry distinction]
	D --> E[“Subak” = the “wet village” - the domain of water, rice, and cultivation]
	E --> F[residential/livable environment = the “dry village]
	F --> G[two parallel institutional orders, each with its own membership, obligations, and authority]

The Nature-Culture Dichotomy: Ritual as Environmental Management, Not Mystification

The Common Misreading

• rituals tied to environmental management in pre-modern states are often misconstrued as a mere “infusion of nature into culture”
• this framing obscures their practical and organizational functions

The New Yam Festival (Igbo, West Africa)

• held at the close of the harvest season

• farmers and residents gather to display their harvest - a public accounting of a successful farming period

• ancestors are praised for enabling the harvest, while a better yield is anticipated for the coming year

• forbidden from eating the new yam before the festival

• business perspective: makes sure those who have old harvest in stock are able to sell them

  • if people were allowed to sell the new yams, nobody would want to buy the old ones anymore

The Rice Goddess (Bali)

• successful rice cultivation is attributed to the rice goddess Sri Dewi
• yet efficacy depends on community mechanisms for coordinated planting and harvesting being properly in place

Environment, Nature and the Emergence of New States

15th and 16th century: beginning of a centralized system of administration in most states

1648 Westphalia Treaty

• precursor to the modern day state system

20th century: emergence of a modern state system

New States, Social Structures, and Reordering of Nature

Centralization and the disciplining of population	Institutionalization of new state practices
International relations and mapping	New processes of adjudication