SOCIAL FORMATIONS AND CULTURAL PATTERNS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Course Objective:
The students will be acquainted with the evolution of mankind, the beginning of food
production, the Bronze Age., advent of iron, the slave society in ancient Greece, the economy
and the Political culture of the ancient Greece .

Unit-1 Evolution of Humankind
Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures. Food production: beginnings of agriculture and
animal husbandry.

Unit-2 Bronze Age Civilizations
with reference to any one of the following: i) Egypt (Old Kingdom); ii) Mesopotamia
(up to the Akkadian Empire); iii) China (Shang); IV) Eastern Mediterranean (Minoan)
economy, social stratification, state structure, religion.

Unit-3 Nomadic groups in Central and West Asia;
Debate on the advent of iron and its implications

Unit-4 Slave society in Ancient Greece
Agrarian economy, urbanization, trade.

Unit-5 Polis in ancient Greece:
Athens and Sparta; Greek Culture

Recommended Readings:

Burns and Ralph. World Civilizations. Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. I.
V. Gordon Childe, What Happened in History.
G. Clark, World Prehistory: A New Perspective.
B. Fagan, People of the Earth.
Amar Farooqui, Early Social Formations.
M. I. Finley, The Ancient Economy.
Jacquetta Hawkes, First Civilizations.
G. Roux, Ancient Iraq.
Bai Shaoyi, An Outline History of China.
H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness that was Babylon.
B. Trigger, Ancient Egypt: A Social History.
UNESCO Series: History of Mankind, Vols. I - III./ or New ed. History of Humanity.
R. J. Wenke, Patterns in Prehistory.
G. E. M. Ste Croix, Class Struggles in the Ancient Greek World.
J. D. Bernal, Science in History, Vol. I.
V. Gordon Childe, Social Evolution.
Glyn Daniel, First Civilizations.
A. Hauser, A Social History of Art, Vol. I.