Traditional
theories of urbanization and definitions of a city focus on the notion of
centrality. Those theories necessitates
that every city requires the existence of an absolute, centralized, and possibly
despotic power that ensure a centralized economy. Such notions imply the
unification of the different people within the city is imposed on them rather
than spontaneously emerging. Also, in such a scheme, self-identity couldn’t be
questioned since members of the city were born into a rigid, and well-defined
relationship to the rest of the community, especially to the king. Such
definitions fail to account for cities in ancient Shang- China and West Niger
civilizations. Both of these civilizations contained diverse populations of
discrete specialized families which lived in great proximity and functioned
together through exchange of goods. Within such a scheme, both of those
civilization experienced a diversified subsistence level.
To
begin with, the city of Jenne-Jeno is the earliest identified settlement in
West Africa. Because of the absence of a centralized political, social and
economic power or even a unifying ideology or religion, scholars have declined
to accept the sight as a city-sight. In Jenne-jeno we encounter the development
of increasingly populated groups with a variety of collective skills that
slowly developed into a “network of specialized parts.” To develop their city,
those groups must have developed concepts of collective differentiation and
probably created symbols that would facilitate communication among those
different groups. This concept of collective differentiation means that members
of one group, to preserve their unique ancestor-worship-cults, tried to
establish a self-identity. Thus, despite their extensive communication and
exchange of goods with other groups, each group maintained its unique
character, “cities without citadels”.
Because
of their different and unique ancestor cults, members of those smaller groups
or communities avoided assimilating themselves with other groups, and thus,
integration into a single community was avoided. In an effort to preserve their
individuality local communities maintained spatial boundaries that separated
them from other. These small collective groups, however, still maintained
strong relationship with other suppliers or clients, with whom the exchanged
goods, by remaining relatively close to other groups. As a result, they were
separate but close small collective groups of different specialties and of
different spiritual practices. Gradually, one or two cities would develop
or merge into a larger settlement. This
larger settlement is still surrounded by groups which, too, slowly developed
into surrounding villages. This egalitarian system, which indicates flexibility
and fairness, facilitated the intersection and overlap or resources, as well as
communication of knowledge and kills. Hence, a clustering system of
urbanization emerged peacefully and spontaneously, forming something similar to
our modern day concept of a city ( downtown and suburbs!).
Similarly,
the settlements during the Shang dynasty in China, are marked by their
dispersed scheme. Each of these small settlements had its own set of artisans,
ancestor-worship-cult, and elite lineage. This suggest the presence of
independent communities that were almost self-sufficient, “eco-social
independence”. Moreover, as described earlier in the first essay, the Shang
empire was rather a territorial state that allowed a great amount of
flexibility. Thus one can propose that these independent communities, because
of their proximity, decided to join a ‘federation’ initiated and led by the
founders of the Shang state. Indeed this confirms the need of a tributary
system as well as “publicity-tours” that the king often used to take to the
different areas of his state. Further, because of the relative independence of
the those communities, the Shang emperor had to develop a “distribution of
goods” system that would facilitate communication and would confirm unity among
the various communities. Also, because of the variety of ancestor cults that
existed in the Shang state, the founders couldn’t claim absolute superiority
over the different local cults. In fact, the founders tried to merely unify
them, by claiming the divine relationship between the emperor and the heavenly
Gods.
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