Ch. 1: Theory of Urban Genesis

URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

1.30 A Theoretical Model of Urban Genesis

Again, the initial question: How do civilizations begin? We will answer this several ways, with increasing focus at each pass.

In general, civilizations emerge out of pre-existing human societies. Therefore the society must change from some non-civilized form into a civilized form. This can happen through direct contact with another, neighboring society which is already civilized; a common phenomenon which has been well-documented. But the initial question is usually asked about the first civilization to arise in some part of the world, such as Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, Central America, or South America. The geographic isolation of each of these regions means that the civilizations which formed in each region probably did so independently. So, then, without prior models to imitate, the question remains:

How did non-civilized societies change into civilized societies without role models?

To answer this forther we need a general definition of 'civilization' that works for the variety of cultures mentioned above. V. Gordon Childe (1950) compiled a list of traits that archaeologists find wherever a civilization emerges. Robert Mc. Adams (1966) and Paul Wheatley (1969, 1983) refined it to this form:

a relative jump in population size and settlement density;
occupational specialization, or the permanent residence of once-itinerant specialists;
the creation of monumental architecture, and the mobilization of the labor to build it;
the concentration of luxury goods, and differentiation in dwelling sizes;
the development of some form of writing;
extension of control over a region, and subordination of surrounding settlements to secondary status and size;
trade, and the importation of raw materials to the city;
the emergence of the State as a non-kin-based political organization of the society.

In essence, civilization involves specialization, institutionalization, and the organization of power. Which, then, is the agent of change? Robert Mc. Adams concluded that the establishment of political power drove the reorganization of the whole society, producing the rest of the traits listed above. Paul Wheatley (1969) then developed a working definition of the State: "a heirarchically structured, functionally specialized set of social institutions organized on a political and territorial basis." In partial answer to the initial question, then:

The first establishment of organized political power transforms a non-civilized culture into a civilization.

This partial answer results in several more questions which will be examined further:
How is political power first organized?
What does the transformative process look like?

The Chaco Phenomenon, as a possible instance of primary urban genesis, is certainly unique in terms of the physical forms that were created. If viewed in terms of form alone, it is difficult to compare the Chaco site to the remains of any other culture, complex or simple. But if the sudden changes in Chacoan design are viewed as indicators of changes in the structure of Chacoan cultural institutions, then the event known as the Chaco Phenomenon strongly resembles the changes that other societies have undergone while becoming urban civilizations.