Did the Ancient State Exist?

This book uses assemblage theory to offer an alternative approach for understanding political decision-making in early large collectives, illustrating the approach's utility with five case studies from around the world. This is a Flip it Open title and may be available open access on Cambridge Core.

Scholarly texts and the popular imagination often analogize the state as a person that is concrete and independent in its actions. This Leviathan, the state-as-person analogical framing, pervades our interpretations of the past. The framing is deeply misleading, both narrowing the possibilities of past governance for large-scale collectives and distorting our understanding of how important decisions were made. This book uses the assemblage approach and other related theories to develop an alternative framework that views these polities as dynamic assemblages of human and other-than-human agents brought together through ongoing projects of incorporation and coordination. Leaders try, and often fail, to shape these assemblages through their actions. Five case studies illustrate the benefits of this approach for understanding past politics—from Chaco Canyon, the Andean Wari, Shang China, Ilé-If?Ì in Nigeria, and ancient Athens. This is a Flip it Open title and may be available open access on Cambridge Core.