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Ronald M. Glassman
The Origins of
Democracy in
Tribes, City-States
and Nation-States
The Origins of Democracy in Tribes,
City-States and Nation-States
Ronald M. Glassman
The Origins
of Democracy
in Tribes, City-States
and Nation-States
Volume I
Ronald M. Glassman
NYU School of Liberal Studies
New York, NY, USA
We all know that ancient Greek democracy was unique and the most fully
developed form of democracy the world had ever known. But where did
Greek democracy come from?
Aristotle states in his Logic: something cannot come from nothing.
Therefore, if something exists, it must have come from something.
Aristotle describes in detail how Greek city-state democracy came from
Greek tribal democracy. In his Constitution of Athens, Aristotle (and his stu-
dents) gives us a precise, detailed description of the Athenian tribal assembly
of male warriors and the council of elders—restricted exclusively to the aris-
tocrats who led the warriors as mounted cavalry soldiers. The aristocratic
clans were “charismatized,” linking their descent to the gods and heroes of
Greek tradition.
Though the aristocrats dominated the council of elders and made policy,
the warriors of the assembly had the right to vote on all decisions.
The democratic warriors’ assembly, the council of elders, and the aristo-
cratic domination by “royal” clans were typical for many tribes, not just the
Greek tribes.
What was unique to the Greek situation was that during the transition to
city-state society, the mounted aristocrats lost their military superiority to the
foot soldiers of the newly perfected heavily armored hoplite phalanx forma-
tion. The city-state assembly and the law courts then became fully democratic
institutions.
Economic class distinctions, however, did emerge in the new money-craft-
trade economy of the Greek city-states. This led to oligarchic, as well as
democratic, polities. But in many of the Greek city-states, not just Athens,
every citizen—rich, poor, or middle class—had an equal vote at the assembly
and in the law courts.
Thus, Greek city-state democracy did not come from nothing. It evolved
from Greek tribal democracy. Further, other tribes evolved into city-states.
And, even though Greek city-state democracy was the most fully developed,
other city-states held similar institutions.
Aristotle describes the evolving city-state democracy in Carthage—a
Phoenician city-state. He describes the warriors’ assembly, the council of
elders, and the declining traditional kingship. By Aristotle’s time, the kings
had been replaced by generals—who were powerful, but received no godlike
deference. Aristotle also described how the council of elders had become a
v
vi Preface
council of rich oligarchs, who made policy, but whose decisions could be
vetoed by the warriors’ assembly—which had become a citizens’ assembly.
Other Phoenician city-states, such as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, had gone
through similar transitions. So too had certain Syrian city-states, such as
Ebla, and, centuries earlier, the Sumerian city-states had also exhibited a
democratic assembly and council of wise elders—before being absorbed into
the expansionary military kingdoms of Mesopotamia.
All across the Aegean and Mediterranean region and centuries later in
Renaissance Italy and Hanseatic Germany, trade-capitalist city-states
emerged with various forms of democracy or oligarchy. And all of these
exhibited holdovers from their tribal days.
Having established this, it must be made clear that tribes contain a para-
dox: they exhibit democratic institutions linked to their clan-representative
tribal councils, but they also exhibit despotic institutions linked to the war
chief and the shaman.
Kings and royal clans emerged from warrior tribes, leading them toward
military despotism, and theocratic priestly domination emerged from the sha-
man role. Therefore, tribes were just as likely to evolve toward despotic king-
ship and theocracy as toward democratic-egalitarian governance.
In conclusion, then, since something cannot come from nothing, the some-
thing that these four volumes describe is tribal democracy and its occasional
transition to city-state democracy in the ancient Mediterranean region and
post-feudal Europe. The development of the divine kingship and theocracy is
described as well, though these forms of government are not the main focus
of this treatise.
History is not just a chronicle of kings and tyrants. It is also the story of
various forms of democracy. It is common knowledge that democracy
emerged in ancient Greece. Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens gives us a
detailed description of the workings of Greek democracy. And Herodotus
contrasted Greek democracy with the despotic kingships of Persia and Egypt.
Our human potential is paradoxical. It can engender democracy; but it can
also foster various forms of violent tyranny.
This four-part work focuses on the forms of democratic governance that
existed in tribes, city-states, and nation-states.
Part I uses the anthropological literature to describe the “campfire democ-
racy” of the African Bushmen, the Pygmies, and other band societies. Its
main focus is on the tribal democracy of the Cheyenne, Iroquois, Huron, and
other tribes.
In tribal democracy, a council of elders was elected from the clans, and
these elders submitted their decisions to a warriors’ assembly. Paradoxically,
tribes also institutionalized the war chief and shaman roles, from which des-
potic kingship and theocracy emerged in the larger tribal confederations.
The role of women in the tribal democracies is also given special attention.
Though they were excluded from the warriors’ assembly, they were powerful
within the matrilineal clans.
Part II focuses on the transition from tribal democracy to city-state
democracy in the ancient Middle East—from the Sumerian city-states to the
Phoenician. These city-states, though not fully democratic like Athens and
Preface vii
Weberian Methodology
B. Weber also in Economy and Society, and in the Methodology of the Social
Sciences, develops his theoretical notion of “ideal types” and “civiliza-
tional peculiarities.”
ix
x Theoretical Framework
For instance, his comparison of the Spartan “ephors” and the Roman “tri-
bunes” was groundbreaking.
D. In The City, Weber describes the rise of the Northern European city-states
and their breakaway from feudal kingly authority. “City air makes one
free.”
His description of the Hansa trading cities and the Dutch trading cities
gives us an up close look at the conditions which generated oligarchy, democ-
racy, and legal authority in the Northern European city-states.
Of course, Weber’s focus on the role of Calvinism in both the economic
development and political development of the Dutch and British trading cities
shows us the complexity of the causality of human social change.
In The City, we get the ideal typology for city-state law and democracy,
while in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, we get the civili-
zational peculiarity which helped generate a new kind of economic
production.
E. Finally, in Ancient Judaism, Weber describes the tribal Jews, who began
as a set of typical herding tribes, but in an unusual peculiarity—after
experiencing the Egypt of the 18th and 19th Dynasties and being led by
Moses—became “theocratic.”
This was not at all a typical tribal development and alerts us to the fact
that, even though there are regular stages of development, some societies will
diverge from them.
Aristotelian Theory
Aristotle then links the forms of government to the class structure, analyz-
ing oligarchy of the rich, democracy of the poor, and democracy with a
middle-class majority—which he famously calls “polity,” because it is inclu-
sive of elements of oligarchy, democracy, and even monarchy.
Theoretical Framework xi
Evolutionary Anthropology
Elman R. Service, Allen W. Johnson and Timothy Earle, Ronald Cohen and
John Middleton, and other modern anthropologists have developed a typol-
ogy of tribes in evolutionary perspective. They divide tribes into stages of
development: hunter-gatherers, hunter-horticulturalists, horticultural village
societies, herding tribes, and expansionary chieftainships.
Notice that mostly the categories are based on economic organization of
the tribe, but the chieftainships are based on military organization.
Further, categories such as age, gender, and clan type are also analyzed by
these anthropologists as are spiritual institutions such as the shaman organi-
zation and religious beliefs and rituals.
These categories of analysis—though multicausal—can be utilized for
comparative-historical analysis.
Thus, Thorkild Jacobsen has compared the council of elders and warriors’
assembly of ancient Sumer (the Epic of Gilgamesh) with that of the
Scandinavian “thing” and “Althing” assemblies of the Norse tribes. And
W.S. Ferguson has compared the Zulus and the Spartans in terms of their
military organization.
Similarly, E. Adamson Hoebel and Bruce Trigger compare the tribal clan
elders and warriors’ assemblies of the Cheyenne, the Huron, and the Iroquois.
They use the category “hunting-horticultural” but also focus on the matrilin-
eal clans in these societies and the power of clan matrons.
Allowing for “civilizational peculiarities,” the ideal-typical characteristics
of the evolutionary anthropologists’ categories are useful.
Feminist Theory
power. And women shaman were powerful figures within horticultural and
early agricultural societies. “Mother nature,” the earth goddess and fertility
goddess, spawned dominant female figures such as Enheduanna of Sumer,
Jezebel of Tyre (of Biblical infamy), the Delphic Oracle, Nebula of the Zulus,
and many more.
There were also warrior queens such as Artemisia of Halicarnassus (as
described by Herodotus) and Boudicca of the Britains (as described by
Caesar) along with great queens, such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra of Egypt.
Finally, there were intellectuals, such as Aspasia of Miletus and Athens,
Sappho of Lesbos, and Hypatia of Alexandria who contributed to the cultural
expansion and the rational-scientific worldview of the Greeks.
Conclusion
There are many scholars and friends who have encouraged me over the years.
Let us begin with Nico Stehr, without whom this work may never have been
published. Nico is an astute sociologist, whose work helped me verify my
project, and he opened a world of European sites that I might have missed
without his guidance.
Professor Stehr was also part of the Max Weber Colloquium group, which
I chaired for a time. The group included Robert Antonio, with whom I co-
authored A Weber-Marx Dialogue. Also in the group were Jonathan Turner of
the U.K., Franco Ferrarotti of the University of Rome, and William Swatos
Jr., with whom I co-authored For Democracy and Bureaucracy Against
Democracy and Socialism.
Then there is Arthur Vidich, who as my doctoral thesis advisor, encour-
aged me to delve into both the anthropological and sociological aspects of
political organization. Without his encouragement, this book would never
have come to fruition. Art Vidich advised me to think big, when American
sociologists were thinking small.
Just when I thought I might abandon this project, my spirits were lifted by
a group of Dutch sociologists at the University of Amsterdam. Johan (Joop)
Goudsblom and Wilbert Van Vree, among others, renewed my zeal for
expanding this project. Their books, Fire and Civilization and Meetings,
Manners, and Civilization, were models for my research into the origins of
democracy.
Basil Kardaras—a Greek-born sociologist transplanted to America—
engaged me in marathon discussions of Greek democracy and its uniqueness
in the world. He provided me with valuable sources that I never could have
found on my own.
George Rappaport, a scholarly historian, and good friend, held Socratic
dialogues with me, to question my work, critique it, and improve it.
Then there is my long time friend, Lawrence Raphael, true to his family
name—though he is not Italian—who taught me more about Ancient Rome
and Renaissance Italy than any of my sources ever could. And his wife,Carolyn,
a good friend and an infinitely insightful poet, encouraged me to continue my
work and to keep a positive attitude towards its publication.
And, I thank my oldest friend, Ira Glasser, former director of the American
Civil Liberties Union, for engaging me in endless debate on the meaning of
liberty, freedom, democracy, and law. We have been debating and discussing
xiii
xiv Acknowledgments
political issues since our adolescence, and we will be debating these issues
into our graves. Great fun, deep thinking, good friendship—thanks Ira.
I would also like to thank Steve and Dorothy Cantor for their strong sup-
port and close friendship during the years I was writing this treatise and bor-
ing my friends and family with its details.
Gus Davis—pathologist extraordinaire—offered friendship and erudite
riffs that were fun, funny, and yet very enlightening.
Then there is Gerald Scorse, with whom I co-authored an article. We
mutually encouraged each other to keep thinking about the cutting edge
issues of the day.
Finally, without my wonderful wife, Urania, this work would never have
seen the light of day. For, she was the only person who understood the wide-
ranging thesis of this book, and had the computer expertise to set it up in
e-format. She grasped the essence of The Origins of Democracy in Tribes,
City-States, and Nation-States, and had the ability—which I lack—of pains-
takingly re-ordering the files into Microsoft Word, so that it could be pub-
lished. She is both brilliant and precise, and a scholar in her own right—the
author of numerous books on social work education and group work.
My two sons, Danny and Alex, suffered my absorption into my scholarly
work with good humor and a sensible attitude. I thank them for being patient,
and for simply being.
My sincere gratitude goes to Springer Publishers for their patience and
their expertise in the new high tech publication process. Without their expert
support, this book would never have seen the light of day. And my thanks
goes especially to Hendrikje Tuerling for shepherding this manuscript to
completion, and KrishnaKumar for his precise copy editing.
Finally, I would like to pay homage to Herodotus, who put together the
study of culture and history, and who made us ponder the question: What is
history and what is myth?
Contents of Volume I
xv
xvi Contents of Volume I
Possession of a Territory......................................................... 80
Possession of a Name.............................................................. 81
Kinship Democracy................................................................ 81
Form of the Tribal Council..................................................... 82
The “Democratic” Assembly Surrounding
the Tribal Council................................................................... 83
Unanimity............................................................................... 84
Investing and Deposing Clan Headmen.................................. 85
The Tribal Headman............................................................... 86
Charismatic Leadership.............................................................. 86
Notes........................................................................................... 87
10 Horticulture, Matrilineal Clans, and the Rise of Status
and Power of Women................................................................ 89
Women’s Power Expanded Through Control of Inheritance...... 90
Horticulture, Fertility Religion, and Female Shaman................. 91
Women’s Power Rises in the Matri-Clans, But Not
in the Tribe at Large.................................................................... 92
Notes........................................................................................... 93
11 Warfare and Politics................................................................. 95
Early Military Expeditions.......................................................... 95
Organization of Warriors............................................................. 97
Military Fraternities................................................................ 97
The Warrior Fraternities as an Internal Police Force.............. 98
The Status of Women in Warrior Oriented
Tribal Societies....................................................................... 101
Notes........................................................................................... 102
12 The Confederacy of Tribes....................................................... 105
The Iroquois Confederation........................................................ 105
The Rise of the War Chief........................................................... 107
The War Chief as Elective Office in the Period
of Confederation..................................................................... 107
The Two War Chiefs............................................................... 107
Paramount Chieftancy............................................................. 108
Notes........................................................................................... 109
13 Tribal Games............................................................................. 111
14 Religion and Politics................................................................. 115
The World of Dreams.................................................................. 115
The Religious Reality Structure.................................................. 115
The First Theodical Answer........................................................ 117
The Birth and Function of Ritual and Taboo.............................. 117
Men and Women of Religion...................................................... 118
The Rise of the Shaman.............................................................. 120
The Birth of the Witch Doctor................................................ 122
The Shaman Against the People............................................. 123
The People Retaliate against Shaman..................................... 123
Limits to the Shaman’s Power................................................ 124
Notes........................................................................................... 126
xviii Contents of Volume I
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