This (short) response largely takes its stimulus from a question, highlighted by Casey, that Keffie asked in class, and draws on Omur's response. I was tempted to write something about the validity of Yoffee's city state model, but that may have been done to death...

In class, Keffie wondered why it is that people, or rather the subjects of the state, accept its existence and domination. Whilst we didn't discuss it in detail, the general consensus seemed to emerge that this is not a rapid subjugation, or one that is immediately obvious (I think Casey made this point?). That is, the process of falling under the jurisdiction of the state is never one which is recognized at the conscious level, is never apprehended. It is organic, implicit, unconscious and essentially long-term. This seems rather interesting to me: that the formation of subjection takes place over the Braudelian longue duree. I think this has a number of implications. These are not necessarily significant implications, or consequences I have considered in detail, but they seem relevant:

Subjectivity

Omur wrote about the powerful dynamism of the stele of Hammurabi. If I'm not mistaken, the position was that, whilst the stele undoubtedly (indeed, emphatically) possesses symbolic capital a la Yoffee, this is not to divorce it from the material world of interactions, movement, existence. The relationship between text | practice notwithstanding, what are the implications of the long-term coagulation of statism for this artifact? It cannot disrupt or puncture the consciousness, as that would make the state obvious and intrusive, an imposition into a space in which it previously was not. That is, the stele (and associated connotations, effects etc) had to form slowly and organically, over time. I'm not quite sure whether this remains fruitful, but there seems to be a sense in which the physical carving of the stele is not necessarily the only, or indeed the most important, part of its process of becoming. For those whose subjectivity is constructed by the stele (surely in mutual, bilateral negotiation?), the stele must be the always-already-there. In a sense, the stele is only the final (maybe not the final, considering it's now in the Louvre!) manifestation of itself. From this it surely follows that the subjectivity of those around it was being created over the long-term also...whilst it sounds odd, this leads me to think that the stele and the people who move | act around it are, in a sense, only fulfilling parts which were already assigned to them. Their subjectivity was always in the process of becoming. I'm rambling.

"Punk-eek" and state emergence

Less relevant, but. If the state is in the process of becoming over the longer term, is seeking a point of genesis a somewhat futile task (Yoffee, Cherry 1986, Renfrew 1972? The state cannot emerge fully-formed from the preceding mode of operation, as it has to remain below the conscious or risk rejection. This, also, perhaps leads to a useful thought regarding the decay-dissolution-change (avoiding 'collapse' here): these processes occur when the paraphernalia of the state become too visible, puncture that which is known explicitly, and rejection follows the realization that the state is exploitative. The Bourdieu piece for next week is obviously relevant here.

Consciousness?

If the becoming of the state is always long-term and non-obvious, then is it possible to speak of human agency driving its formation? This seems to be an issue which we've skirted around. We don't want to imagine the formation of the state taking place without human input, but it seems hard to see how human agency could have a role if the state is never explicitly acknowledged or thought. Perhaps it's easier to understand the state-becoming as a by-product of more explicit short-term, agent-focused processes; inter-group/family competition in the short-term (evenementielle?) leading to the organic development of the behaviors and materials of the state?

More or less unrelated thoughts. Some worth following up, some maybe not...but the issue of consciousness, and slow becoming, seem to be important ones.