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Module 1: From rural to urban
Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
The Lecture Contains:
Theories of Origin
V. Gordon Childe
Criteria indicating the Development of Urban Civilization
Heterogeneity
Communication
Role of Political Institution of Kingship
Certain Common Features of the Ancient Cities
References
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Module 1: From rural to urban
Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
Theories of Origin
V. Gordon Childe: Urban Revolution
Lewis Mumford: Urban Implosion
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957)
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V. Gordon Childe was an Australian archeologist who is credited with coining the term
'urban revolution'.
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The term urban revolution refers to the processes by which agricultural village societies
developed into socially, economically and politically complex urban societies.
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Childe identified ten formal criteria that according to his system indicate the development of
urban civilization:
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
.
Criteria indicating the Development of Urban Civilization :
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increased settlement size
concentration of wealth
class-stratified society
large-scale public works
writing
representational art
knowledge and science of engineering
foreign trade
full-time specialists in non-subsistence activities
political organization based on residence (territory) rather than kinship
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
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According to Childe, the underlying causes of the urban revolution were:
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the cumulative growth of technology
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the increasing availability of food surpluses
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the increasing availability of capital.
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Food surplus is the necessary but not sufficient pre-condition for the urban revolution.
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Although it was later shown that Child's exact criteria were not universal, some basic
characteristics do appear to be essential to the development of urban life.
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Module 1: From rural to urban
Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
Lewis Mumford (1895-1990)
Lewis Mumford had noted that
Heterogeneity
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The city came as a definite emergent in the Neolithic community (The New Stone Age
9000-3000 BCE). It required no mere increase in numbers. It is heterogeneity that led to the
formation of the city—the miner, the woodman, the fisherman, each bringing with him the tools
and skills and habits of life formed under other pressures. The engineer, the boatman, the sailor
and other occupational groups ,the soldier, the banker, the merchant, the priest. Out of this
complexity the city created a higher unity.
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It is not that kinship and family connections did not matter but vocational ability was considered
to be the most important thing. So the question is what skill have you brought and not what tribe/
caste do you belong to.
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Communication
Mumford discussed the effects of the city on communication:
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mobilization of man-power
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a command over long distance transportation
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an intensification of communication over long distances in space transportation
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an intensification along with a large scale development of civil engineering
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it promoted further rise in agricultural productivity. Development in science and
technology and increased demand led to this rise.
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Module 2: Origin of city in history
Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
Receptacle of Civilization
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From its origin onward, the city may be described as a structure specially equipped to
store and transmit the goods of civilization Sufficiently condensed to afford the
maximum amount of facilities in a minimum space, but also capable of structural enlargement to
enable it to find a place for the changing needs and the more complex forms of a growing society
and its cumulative social heritage.
The earliest and most characteristic achievements of the city were
The invention of such forms as
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the
the
the
the
the
written record
library
archive
school
university
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
The Process of Implosion
Mumford argued that
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Contrary to rejecting what was already there, the 'urban revolution' actually brought the earlier
elements of the existing culture and increased their efficacy and scope. In this context, revolution
does not mean discarding what was there earlier.
The emergence of non-agricultural occupations, heightened the demand for food and
probably caused villages to multiply, where more land was brought under cultivation.
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Mumford uses the term implosion to describe the process where the diverse elements of the
community hitherto scattered were mobilized and packed together under pressure, behind the massive
walls of the city.
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More urban centres meant that there was more population who did not produce food. The city was
not a revolution but built on something that was already present.
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
Role of Political Institution of Kingship
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According to Mumford, it was the institution of Kingship that was at the centre of urban implosion.
He cites archeological evidence from Egypt and Mesopotamia where the king stood at the centre
of the urban implosion bringing under the control of the palace and temple all the new forces of
the civilization.
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The earliest cities always had a centrally located citadel which signified a political centre.
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Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
Certain Common Features of the Ancient Cities
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Walls : primarily for military defense but also to emphasize the separation of the urban
community from the countryside.
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They contained a market but it was not in the city centre like modern cities. The main
buildings were nearly always religious or political such as temples, palaces or courts. The
dwellings of the ruling class or elite tended to be concentrated in or near the centre while the less
privileged lived near the edges.
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The places of work and residence were the same.
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Module 1: From rural to urban
Lecture 3: How did the urban community emerge? (continued)
References
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Childe, V. Gordon 1950 'The Urban Revolution' . In Town Planning Review 21: 3-17 1950
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Mumford, Lewis 1961 "The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations and Its Prospects".
New York: Harcourt Brace & World Inc. 1961.
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