The Origin of Civilization

By: Scott MacEachern, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Scott MacEachern

What defines a civilization? How did the first states emerge? How were the world's ancient states similar and different? Answer these and other dramatic questions with this grand 48-lecture course that reveals how human beings around the world transitioned from small farming communities to the impressive cultural and political systems that would alter the course of history.

Taking a gripping archaeological and historical approach to formative states such as the ancient Egyptians, the Chinese, and the Maya, Professor MacEachern completes your understanding of the history of civilization by exploring it at its earliest stages. Unlike traditional surveys of ancient civilizations, which tend to focus only on the glorious achievements of these cultures, you'll look at those first all-important steps that the world's first civilizations would take on the road to glory.

You'll investigate places such as Mesopotamia, where agriculture laid the foundation for groundbreaking experiments in social and political development in places like Uruk and Sumer; the eastern Mediterranean, where expanding maritime trade during the Bronze Age increasingly knit the different societies of these islands into a web of political and economic relationships; and Mesoamerica, where the indigenous states in and around what are now Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua reveal the full flowering of Olmec and Maya civilization.

You'll also take an engaging look at what archaeologists have learned from some of the world's oldest and most intriguing sites. In the end, these lectures will leave you awestruck at the diverse ways that ancient people crafted complex systems - systems whose broad strokes remain with us even today.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2010 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2010 The Great Courses

by design, a less-narrative presentation.

this is about the 8th or 9th of these history oriented great courses that I have listened to. They are all wonderful in their own way and I've enjoyed them all. It was great to listen to this one after I had listened to several others, because this gave me an analytical framework for looking at the information that I had received from the other courses. It is more analytical, and less narrative, so it's different from the other courses. but I think that's a good feature and I enjoyed it. this is important subject matter and I encourage people to give it a good listen.

Good content, bad reader

Good content and interesting topic, but very painful to listen to; slow, too many pauses and dead time every few words... I usually listen at 1.1x or 1.2x speed, for this one I had to go to 1.3x and even tried 1.4x.
Deninitely needs a good edit and some silence trimming

knowing the past will guide us in the future

we should look for parallels from fallen civilizations to predict the outcome of our current civilization.

Great course

Great course covering the origins of civilization. Each lecture covers a new civilization from a different part of the world and is extremely entertaining. Worth the listen!

Global survey finds

I was sold on this course when the first review I saw remarked--fairly--that it'd be more interesting to someone who brings some grounding in ancient history to it than to the total novice. I do recommend this lecture course if you are interested in the details of archaeological theory and the details of peoples not easily accessible in popular and audio literature. Should my reader be interested primarily in the most famous cases such as Egypt or China, Great Courses specializing in them may be well recommended, in my experience. Whereas anyone seeking specifically for bold or comprehensive theses on how and why some people invent the state might listen elsewhere.

The strength of this course is in its (2008-2009) compilation of archaeological cases. Dr. MacEachern (as well as the course guide) gives substantial attention to less popularly studied as well as to the most famous cases of "ancient" (read something akin to Before Encountering States of Other Origins) state formations. Not every region or case one could possibly expect is covered, but the ratio of breadth to depth in the survey seems quite reasonable. The inclusion of four Sub-Saharan and one South East Asian lectures, not to mention over a dozen on Meso- and South American peoples, in the 40 civilization-focused lectures are in no way to be taken for granted in surveys of world civilization! Similarly, this course is an interesting source for another "rare pick," if you will, in its his extensive discussions of the archaeological theory, its aims, methods, and limitations. I love world history and I don't know now how many comparative works I've read from how many angles: I didn't know everything here (if you did, I accuse you of being an archaeologist).

Another commendation, Dr. MacEachern's personal passion for Sub-Saharan archaeology is truly remarkable even among the compelling lecturers I've heard from the Great Courses. One hears in his voice in his African lectures, he would feel truly gratified if he did well to make his listener appreciate some of the unsung African variants of ancient civilization. I respected the depth of his conviction greatly. I believe he succeeds.

On the other hand, I think that no one shall scold Dr. MacEachern for overreaching in his conclusions. Much of the time, he seems intent to inform us what not to think as what to think. Often he's probably right to ward off unexamined biases from days gone by. But sometimes it's a little amusing that he thinks we all know enough about South East Asian historiography, say, to require lengthy convincing to stop conceptualizing it through the term 'mandala' ;)

He can make himself sound a little One Darn Thing After Another in his resistance of bringing conclusions too hastily from his data. He does argue, ultimately, that there are no simple answers to how and why states arise generally: flood plains, urbanization, distance trade in elite goods, specialist non-food-producers and social stratification, intensive agriculture, starchy crops, and numerous other phenomena MAY be associated with early states. But Dr. MacEachern's survey finds that none is present in EVERY case, and so none is necessary, and no general explanation of the causation of states is anticipated. Amusingly, it would appear that the one thing we can count on archaeologists' finding in early states is a budding ideology to justify the state; this, though archaeologists have rather a hard time digging up ideologies.

All told, if you want to hear the very diverse descriptions of numerous famous and "rarer" early civilizations, with intellectually honest and careful attention paid to the limitations of archaeological theory, listen up!