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What makes civilization? : the ancient Near East and the future of the West / David Wengrow.

Title: What makes civilization? : the ancient Near East and the future of the West / David Wengrow.
Author: Wengrow, D.
Publication: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	DT43 .W46 2010	Off-site

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Details

Description

xx, 217 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, plans; 21 cm

Summary

Renowned archaeologist David Wengrow creates here a vivid new account of the "birth of civilization" in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, bringing together within a unified history the first two nations where people created cities, kingdoms, and monumental temples to the gods. But civilization, Wengrow argues, is not exclusively about large-scale settlements and endeavors. Just as important are the ordinary but fundamental practices of everyday life, such as cooking, running a home, and cleaning the body. Tracing the development of such practices, from prehistoric times to the age of the pyramids, Wengrow reveals unsuspected connections between distant regions and provides new insights into the workings of societies we have come to regard as remote from our own. The book obliges us to recognize that civilizations are not formed in isolation, but through the mixing and borrowing of culture between different societies. It concludes by drawing telling parallels between the ancient Near East and more contemporary attempts to reshape the world according to an ideal image.

Subject

Genre/Form

History (form)

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-208) and index.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

Chronology chart -- Introduction: A clash of civilizations? -- pt. 1. The cauldron of civilization -- Camouflaged borrowings -- On the trail of blue-haired gods -- Neolithic worlds -- The (first) global village -- Origin of cities -- From the Ganges to the Danube : the Bronze Age -- Cosmology and commerce -- The labours of kingship -- pt. 2. Forgetting the old regime -- Enlightenment from a dark source -- Ruined regimes : Egypt at the revolution -- Conclusion: What makes civilization?

ISBN

9780192805805
0192805800
9780199699421
0199699429

LCCN

2010923443
40018248594

OCLC

573152414

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library