Readings on Premodern Societies

363 Pages·1972·66.807 MB·English

by  Victor Lidz and Talcott Parsons

readings
011
premodern
societies
Prentice-llall international, inc., Lmldfm
prentice-hall of Australia, pty. ltd., Sydney
Prentice-hall of Canada, ltd., Toronto
pl'e11ti[:e~hall of iiulia private limited, New Delhi
Prentice-hall of Japan, inc., Tokyo
readings
on
premedern
societies
Victor Lidz
University of Chicago
Talcott Parsons
Harvard University
Prentice-hall, inc.l'englewood cliH's, new jersey
Prentice-hall readings in modern sociology series
Alex Inkles, Editor
© 1972 by
PRENTICES-HALL, INC., Englewood Cliffs, New jersey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro-
duced in any form or by any means without permission in
writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 0-13-761924-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number' 72166139
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
table of contents
general introduction I
TALCOTT PARSONS
introduction 9 Part I
introductory
one the protocultural foundations of
human adaptation '14 readings
A. mvlnG I-IALLOWELL
two religious evolution 30
ROBERT N. BELLAH
three the problem of structural change 52
TALCOTT PARSONS
introduction 67 Part 2
primitive
four religion, totemism, and
symbolism 73 societies
w 1: H S'1A]\]\12R
Eve analysis of purum kinship ties 88
RODNEY NEEDHAM
six afiinal ties, subsistence, and prestige
among the coast Salish 99
WAYNE SUTTLES
5e ven the political system
of the bertha tribe 107
AUDREY I. RICHARDS
V
introduction 125 Part 8
archaic
eight Ira ditional authority 129
MAX WEBER sucielies
nine the Egyptian pharoah 142
The Memphis Theology, HENRI
FRANKFORT /42
The Kins Person: Horus, I-IENRI
FRANKFORT 15/
ten ina spects of the feudal period
in ancient Egypt 158
The Question of Feudal Institutions in
Ancient Egypt, WILLIAM F. EDGERTON 158
The Values of Life in Ancient Egypt, ]OHN
A. WILSON /62
eleven the theological aspect of
Mesopotamian kingship 156
HENRI FRANKFORT
twelve three aspects of
mesnputamian law 180
Legal and Social Institutions of the
Babylonians and Assyrians, SABATINO
MOSCATI /80
Law and Statecraft in Babylon, H. w. F.
SAGGS 184
Courts and Punishment in Babylon, G. R.
DRIVER and J. C. MILES /88
Part 4
introduction 191
historic
thirteen max wehe1°'s systematic typology civilizations
of religion 204
TALCOTF PARSONS
vi contents
fourteen political orientations of
hureaucraeies in centralized
empires 212
S. N. EISENSTADT
fifteen the Chinese Iiterali 231
MAX WEBER
sixteen caste and the foul' life-
stages in traditional India 253
HEINRICH ZIMMER
seventeen laws of class and stage of
life in India 259
A. L. BASHAM
eighteen government, social structure,
and the religious institution
in Islamic society 271
The Religious Institution, HAMILTON GIBB
and HAROLD 1;owEn 27/
Government and the Social Structure,
I-IANIILTON GIBB and HAROLD BOWEN 280
nineteen roman law as the law of the
world 285
RUDOLF SOHM
introduction 309 Part 5
the
twenty the god of the sufferers 315
MARTIN B UBER seedbed
twenty- the Greek city-state and its socielics
one ideal of justice 330
WERNER JAEGER
twenty- the Athenian democracy and its
two critics 341
A. H. m. JONES
contents vii

general introduction
TALCOTT PARSONS
Like other Readers in the Foundations of Modern Sociology series, this
one is designed to accompany and supplement the original book, Societies:
Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Its main purpose is to make easily
available to the student a selection of the literature on which the other book
was based. Mr. Lidz appears as the "senior" Editor, not by virtue of age or
academic position, but for the very cogent reason that he has done most of
the work and that this fact should be accorded symbolic recognition.
The ground which the original book covered is vast, especially for so small
a book, and the literature relevant to it is correspondingly vast. Since both
Mr. Lidz and I are in a sense "general" sociologists, . mot qualified
experts in the subject matter of any chapter, to say nothing of all of them.
We therefore have had to rely on "advice" of various sorts-both the oral
advice of experts, and information about the "reputations" of various con-
tributions we ourselves have gleaned from the literature.
As in the original book, we have relied heavily on sources which make rather
general statements, summaries of empirical evidence and statements of inter-
pretation. There are two main reasons for this. First, we ourselves did not have
personal command over the more detailed original sources-though, for exam-
ple, we have read a good many anthropological Held monographs--and could
have mastered such sources only for a small part of the Held. Second, that
order of detail would have been relatively meaningless to most of our readers
and would have severely increased the difficulty of producing a selection which
might be compatible with our limitations of space.
The criteria for selection were first, probable validity as judged by an article's
reputation among specialists in its field and, secondly, its bearing on the
theoretical, largely sociological, problems we have had in mind and attempted
to state, though in very condensed form, in Chapter 2 of Societies. Especially
in this Reader, Finally, we have used still another supplementary criterion for
selection, which is an extension of the criterion of theoretical significance. This
is that we have either emphasized only one aspect of the society in question,
or given to one or two aspects what many would regard as disproportionate
emphasis, in order to highlight institutions which seen most important in
comparative perspective. Thus on ancient Egypt, three selections dealing with
general introduction 1