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Rethinking Civilization – Crash Course World History
Rethinking Civilization – Crash Course World History
John Green questions what “civilization” means and if it’s a good thing.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
What do the earliest civilizations have in common? What does food have to do with civilization?
People often use the term “civilized” to mean having a refined culture. Does John Green agree with this definition? If not, what does he think is a more historically accurate way to understand the concept of civilization?
What do states have to do with barbarians? As people who live in states, what three things do we tend to assume about states?
According to John Green, what two things are really important for the power of the state? What’s needed to make sure those two things can happen?
What is James Scott's “big idea” about people who live in the hills? What other evidence—from other authors—does John Green present which may corroborate Scott’s idea?
What are some benefits to life in the hills? What are some drawbacks?
Where is Zomia and how many people live there? What’s unique about this region?
What makes it difficult for historians to understand people living outside of states?
: Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course World History,
: and today we're going to talk about civilization.
: Oh, Mr. Green, Mr. Green, I have that video game,
: I like to play as the Assyrians.
: Yeah, me from the past, it was a video game.
: In fact it still is a video game.
: They've continued to update it.
: But, you know, like actual civilization,
: its best days are probably behind it.
: (music playing)
: So those of you who watched our first series
: will remember that civilization
: is a complicated and controversial concept.
: Like, to describe an individual or group as civilized
: is to give them a privileged status
: that they maybe haven't earned,
: while to call someone uncivilized is an insult, right?
: And according to the usual mythology about civilizations,
: there are these uncivilized barbarians,
: often from the hills or the forests or the steppe,
: and they realize the benefits of settled agriculture
: and give up their barbaric ways to settle in the valleys,
: eventually assimilating into civilized society.
: That's a really neatly packaged story, right?
: Like, people all around the world
: come to the same realization, and they all make progress
: and become civilized.
: But what if it's not actually true?
: So, today, a little something
: for the anarchist historians among you,
: we're going to look at "The Art of Not Being Governed:
: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia"
: by James Scott.
: Scott argues that our view of hill people
: as primitive, tribal barbarians has it all wrong,
: and he calls into question
: much of what we assume about civilization.
: So, as you know, here at Crash Course World History,
: we like to approach history from many different perspectives
: because history isn't just about what happened,
: it's also about how we think about what happened.
: So here you go, anarchists,
: we are finally going to address your burning suspicion
: that civilization does not actually require a state.
: So long-time Crash Course viewers will remember
: that many of the earliest civilizations
: were founded in river valleys,
: probably because the rivers brought water
: and made agriculture easier and more predictable.
: You know, you got the Big Three--
: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia,
: and the Indus Valley civilization,
: all near river valleys-- in fact,
: one of them is named after the Indus River.
: And because the land was so fertile for agriculture,
: you could finally have large, concentrated populations
: because there was a food surplus.
: Everything that we associate with civilization,
: from the idea that different people can have different jobs
: to, like, this video camera,
: all a result of food surplus.
: Because if some people couldn't create enough food
: for all people, then, like,
: all people would be very focused on getting food.
: Having a food surplus was a huge change
: compared to, like, the first hundred thousand years
: of humanity when everyone was a hunter-gatherer.
: Food surplus led to population growth
: and population concentration, which led to states
: and what we tend to call "civilizations,"
: which are characterized by good things
: like writing and arts and grocery stores.
: So that's the traditional narrative
: but I'm not sure that it's the whole story--
: let's go to the Thought Bubble.
: Now we might equate civilization with high culture,
: but historically it's probably more accurate to equate it
: with state control, like the Han Chinese,
: who were a pretty successful civilizing empire
: back in the day, wrote of barbarians as people
: who were beyond state control.
: Some of these so-called barbarians were pastoral nomads
: whose raiding posed a genuine threat to the Chinese,
: but others were people who lived in the hills.
: So the opposition of civilized agricultural societies
: living in the valleys and barbarian hill people
: is as old as, you know, like, the hills.
: And one of the earliest and most famous examples
: of the town versus country debate is the Epic of Gilgamesh
: where Enkidu, the wild man from the hills,
: goes to town, spends seven days
: with a prostitute, joins civilization,
: and becomes Gilgamesh's best friend.
: In Southeast Asia, the story that hill people
: were dazzled by civilization and joined up
: circulated as well.
: Here, though, the civilizing force was
: the reading of religious or philosophical texts.
: But more important than either access to classical aged texts
: or civilizing experiences in the city
: was that civilizations were based on settled agriculture
: and were associated with states.
: In a way, it can be argued that without a state,
: there's no such thing as a barbarian.
: But because we live in states,
: we tend to think that they are, A) necessary,
: B) timeless,
: and C) overall a pretty good thing.
: And almost all civilizations are associated with states,
: like Ancient Egypt or China in the remote past,
: or France if you're into western civilization.
: Thanks, Thought Bubble. I mean it's telling
: that the Mongols were arguably the greatest conquerors
: of the pre-modern world
: but we usually don't call them a civilization.
: They just weren't agriculture-y and state-like enough.
: Although, of course, the Mongols being the Mongols,
: there's an exception to the rule.
: The Mongols did settle
: in a recognizable state in Yuan, China.
: (music playing)
: Oh, history, even your exceptions have exceptions.
: So when we talked about states, we need to remember
: that it's pretty common for the creation of states
: to involve some form of coercion,
: like in ancient-- and sometimes not ancient--
: societies, the power of the state
: rested primarily on two things--
: the army and taxes.
: And if you want to create an army or raise taxes
: or both, it's helpful to have a sedentary population
: that spends most of its time producing food
: because food is very valuable to a state.
: I mean, while gold and palaces are beautiful,
: you can't feed them to your army.
: Anyway, agricultural production and the creation of states
: are deeply intertwined.
: Agricultural surplus and control over it
: leads to other aspects of civilization,
: like property rights and patriarchy.
: Well, I guess it doesn't have to lead to patriarchy
: but it usually has.
: So, as states rely on the exploitation
: of agricultural labor
: and the subjugation of their citizens,
: then the civilization narratives that barbarians were drawn
: to civilizations by their obvious superiority
: is kind of problematic.
: There's a big downside
: to all that state control and taxes
: and conscription and servitude.
: And this leads us to James Scott's big idea
: that rather than primitive hill tribes being attracted
: to the glamour and stability of valley settlements,
: hill cultures are formed by people
: running away from civilization.
: Basically, Scott argues that people flee to the hills
: because it makes it hard for states to find and conquer them.
: The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun remarked
: that Arabs can gain control over flat territory
: and do not pursue tribes that hide in the mountains.
: Then you have the Franco-Hungarian
: military officer Baron de Tott poetically exclaiming that,
: "The steepest places have always been the asylum of liberty."
: But the great French historian Fernand Braudel
: probably summed it up best when he wrote,
: "The mountains as a rule are a world apart from civilizations
: "which are an urban and lowland achievement.
: "Their history is to have none, to remain always on the fringes
: of the great waves of civilization..."
: And you may have noticed from the mountainous tribal areas
: of Pakistan to people in Colorado
: with their legal marijuana, it's still kind of difficult
: for states to control hill people.
: This idea turns the civilization narrative on its head.
: Hill people are not barbarians waiting to become civilized.
: They're refugees from civilization itself.
: And this brings up the possibility
: that life in the hills is actually better
: than settled agricultural states
: with their wars and taxes and forced labor.
: Furthermore, cities and settlements
: breed epidemic diseases, and when the next Spanish flu
: comes for all of us,
: it's gonna be good to be in the mountains.
: That said, I'm not a hundred percent sold
: on the argument, which is why I'm living
: in very flat, very civilized Indianapolis.
: I mean, as I said earlier,
: without agricultural surpluses,
: we wouldn't have the internet, which I'm fond of.
: Also, I have tried the hunter-gatherer Paleo diet,
: and it did not suit me-- I like Doritos.
: Stan just told me that the Paleo diet
: is not in fact the diet the people of the hills have.
: Apparently the kind of agriculture
: they used was called swiddening.
: It means shifting cultivation
: and apparently it's great because it provides
: a more varied diet with less effort.
: Score another one for the hill people.
: Maybe I'll try to popularize the swidden diet...
: Oh! Time for the Open Letter.
: Oh, my God, the new globe opens and food comes out of it.
: Is it my birthday?
: Man, I love our new globe.
: Anyway, an open letter to fad diets:
: Dear fad diets,
: You know what doesn't work?
: Eating unhealthily.
: You know what does work? Eating healthily.
: Your noble prehistoric heritage as a scavenger
: has prepared you to eat anything--
: anything that is food.
: So the idea of eating only one kind of food
: is just sort of inherently ludicrous.
: I mean, the average freegan is literally healthier than I am,
: and they just eat whatever is in the dumpster.
: In short, fad diets, eating discarded food
: is much more in line with most of human history
: than the Paleo diet.
: Best wishes, John Green
: All right, so far much of what I've said
: can be applied to hill people from all over the world
: at various times, but the focus of Scott's book
: is the region of upland Southeast Asia
: and southern China that he calls "Zomia."
: Zomia is mountainous and jungle-y
: and home to between 80 and 100 million people.
: It's a little hard to conceptualize
: because we're so used to thinking of history
: in terms of states, and this region is,
: to quote him, "relatively stateless."
: Zomia was at least partially created by slavery,
: actually, because flight from slavery
: is one of the main reasons that people head for the hills.
: According to Scott, "Southeast Asian states
: "were slaving states, without exception,
: "some of them until well into the 20th century.
: "Wars in pre-colonial Southeast Asia
: "were less about territory than about the seizure
: "of as many captives as possible who were then resettled
: at the core of the winner's territory."
: I can just hear all of you Crash Course viewers saying,
: "Wait, is there any evidence that any of that is true?"
: Kinda.
: But, like, if one of the main reasons
: people create hill cultures like Zomia
: is to avoid civilizations, and one of the hallmarks
: of civilizations is writing, then it stands to reason
: that there won't be much written evidence from Zomia,
: as writing is kind of like
: the bread and butter of traditional history.
: Off topic, but bread and butter
: is really no longer the staple of any diet.
: We should really change that phrase to like
: the Doritos Locos Tacos and Chipotle burritos
: of traditional history.
: So the evidence that we can look at is flawed
: because it's mainly what other people have written
: about Zomians and their hill-dwelling brethren.
: Like this Portuguese friar Father Sangermano
: wrote around 1800 that the people of the area, quote,
: "Unable any longer to bear witness to the heavy oppressions
: "and continual levies of men and money made upon them
: "have withdrawn themselves from their native soil,
: with all their families." So, basically,
: he thought, at least, that they were leaving
: because of conscription and taxes--
: you know, hallmarks of civilization.
: And then there are also later colonialists like
: Sir Stamford Raffles,
: who, despite his name, was not a clown.
: He was the founder of British Singapore.
: Here's what he said about colonial rule in Indonesia,
: "Here I am the advocate of despotism.
: "The strong arm of power is necessary to bring men together
: "and to concentrate them into societies...
: "Sumatra is, in great measure,
: "peopled by innumerable petty tribes,
: "subject to no central government...
: "At present, people are as wandering in their habits
: "as birds of the air, and until they are congregated
: "and organized under something like authority,
: nothing can be done with them."
: Raffles there makes an accidental but pretty damning
: indictment of civilization to say that the reason
: that people exist is so that something can be done with them.
: Now admittedly this isn't particularly strong evidence,
: and it doesn't touch on pre-modern history
: or the state formation activities
: of Southeast Asian rulers.
: But if Europeans' attitudes and activities
: drove some people to the mountains,
: it's possible that earlier rulers,
: especially if they founded their states on war and slavery,
: and we know that in many cases they did,
: that they might have had a similar effect.
: So can we finally conclude that hill people
: as well as nomads and other cultures
: that attempt to live outside the state structure
: are not primitive people left behind by civilization,
: but those who have made a conscious choice to avoid it?
: Well, in the absence of extensive written records,
: we call history anthropology.
: That's a joke for all the anthropology majors out there.
: And a number of anthropologists have suggested
: that people who live separate from our ideas of civilization
: did indeed make that choice consciously
: in a wide variety of situations.
: Like in his book "Society Against the State,"
: Pierre Clastres argues that the so-called primitive
: Amerindian societies of South America were not in fact
: ancient societies that had failed
: to invent settled agriculture or state forms,
: but previously sedentary cultivators who abandoned
: agriculture and fixed villages in response
: to the effects of conquest.
: So, are all these stateless social orders
: finally a response to civilization
: or just people who haven't realized
: the bounty of civilization yet?
: I don't know, and studying history
: isn't really about providing answers.
: It's about providing context.
: The question of what's the best and most just way to organize
: our social orders is a big question and a very old one.
: But it's something we still need to be asking
: because we're all still making choices about how
: we're going to organize ourselves into communities.
: Scott's idea of Zomia introduces us
: to a different way of thinking about things
: and equating civilization with coercive state control
: calls into question the idea
: of what it even means to be civilized.
: But I'm not enough of an anarchist
: to let this episode go without acknowledging
: the extraordinary accomplishments of civilization,
: not just agriculture but everything from antibiotics
: to the ability to be connected to people
: who live half a world away from you.
: The deep and growing interconnectedness among humans
: has its risks for sure,
: but it also provides tremendous opportunities.
: We can collaborate, we can play each other in FIFA,
: and we can also do this together.
: But then again, there's an extraordinary freedom
: to Zomian-style social orders and, vitally,
: their way of life is far more sustainable than ours.
: Thanks for watching-- I'll see you next week.
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