反對穀物：最早的國家的深刻歷史

 反對穀物：最早的國家的深刻歷史

詹姆斯·C·斯科特

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對與標準敘述相矛盾的最早文明的開端現在可用的所有新的和令人驚訝的證據的說明。為什麼人類放棄了狩獵和採集，轉向依賴牲畜和穀物的定居社區，並由當今國家的前身統治？大多數人認為，植物和動物的馴化最終使人類得以定居並形成農業村莊、城鎮和國家，這使得文明、法律、公共秩序和可能的安全生活方式成為可能。但考古和歷史證據對這種說法提出了挑戰。詹姆斯·C·斯科特說，最早的農業國家誕生於馴化的積累：首先是火，然後是植物、牲畜、國家臣民、俘虜、

斯科特探討了為什麼我們要避免久坐不動和耕作農業，移動生計的優勢，因擁擠的植物、動物和穀物而引起的不可預見的疾病流行，以及為什麼所有早期國家都以小米和穀物以及不自由的勞動力為基礎。他還討論了長期以來逃避國家控制的“野蠻人”，以此來理解國家與非附屬民族之間持續存在的緊張關係。

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States

James C. Scott

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An account of all the new and surprising evidence now available for the beginnings of the earliest civilizations that contradict the standard narrative. Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family—all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction.

Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and nonsubject peoples.