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Frames in Unit 3
Frames in Unit 3
With the development of more-complex societies in the form of villages, cities, and the first states, this period saw massive changes in the ways we humans organized ourselves into communities.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
How do village-based societies differ from earlier forms of community?
Why did cities need even more governance?
What is a state?
What do these changes look like when viewed through the lens of the networks frame?
: [Music]
: In this course, we use the Communities
: Frame to describe the ways that humans
: organize themselves. They include the
: village, the city, the state, and the
: congregational religion. A village is
: made up of a group of people who live
: together, usually staying in one place
: year round or for most of the year. In
: many places these settled communities
: were only possible because of farming,
: although some foragers also lived in
: settled villages. Villages were different
: from early organizations because their
: ways of governing themselves were more
: complex. Nomadic groups moved around,
: broke apart, and reformed. But villagers
: had to deal with each other constantly.
: They shared duties like protecting crops
: and animals, or building and maintaining
: communal structures. Village life spread
: across much of the world. In some of
: those places cities developed.
: Cities were larger, and more densely
: populated than villages, and they could
: support people who were specialists and
: who didn't produce food at all. Cities
: needed more governance than villages for
: two reasons: first, most people did not
: know or had little reason to trust each
: other, and second: food had to be
: distributed from farmers and herders to
: those who had other jobs. In some places
: groups of cities and villages came
: together to form states. A state is
: an even more developed form of community,
: one that has many more people and more
: layers of government. States face the
: particular problem of ruling large
: groups of people, spread across distances,
: often in challenging
: situations. Over time these communities
: develop strategies for keeping everyone
: together and in agreement. Sometimes, they
: convince people that they had a shared
: interest in identity, sometimes they
: convince people that the government had
: a right to rule them, and sometimes they
: ruled by force. But not all communities
: were states or were controlled by
: governments. For example: the family, often
: extended families, was still a powerful
: force for shaping how people acted.
: Religion was also an important form of
: community. Until Era 3, religion was
: generally closely tied to the family
: and to one location. Networks also grew as
: people traveled, made contact with each
: other, and shared ideas.
: Villages gave rise to village networks,
: which connected villages with each other
: in relationships of rough equality. The
: emergence of cities led to the rise of
: metropolitan networks that connected
: cities to the villages, farms, and nomadic
: people around them. These networks were
: often less equal, with rulers of the
: cities dominating the surrounding
: communities, although this was not always
: so. There were also thinner, less
: populated, and slower long distance networks that
: conducted ideas between and among
: communities. Production and distribution
: also increased in this era. New
: techniques were developed for making
: things, and some very long trade routes
: and lots of smaller ones emerged in many
: parts of the world. Webs of long distance
: trade developed in several regions,
: although most people still made things
: mainly for themselves or for the wealthy
: elites in their local cities. By the end
: of this Era, change was accelerating as
: reflected in all three frames. The
: abundance of new and larger communities
: meant more ideas and things, and large
: networks meant that ideas could flow
: more extensively between different
: communities and regions. Increased
: production and distribution meant that
: more people had access to more goods and
: services. Now was this true for everyone?
: Would this always be true? You will be
: able to judge the answer to these
: questions for yourself in this Era and
: beyond.