16 Hydraulic Civilization

K.R. Rammohan and Avishek Biswakarma

Contents:

Introduction

Hydraulic Civilization

Hydraulic Hypothesis

Characteristics of Hydraulic Economy

Division of Labour in Hydraulic Agriculture:

1. Protective and Preparatory Operations Separated From Farming Proper:

2. Cooperation

Heavy Water Works and Heavy Industry:
Calendar making and Astronomy- Important function of the Hydraulic Regime:
Further Construction Activities; Customary in Hydraulic Societies:

Examples of Early Hydraulic States:

The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians

Learning Objectives:

The module will help the student to understand about Hydraulic Civilizations
The module will enrich the students with features of Hydraulic societies
The module will enable the student to know about the contribution of Hydraulic societies

Introduction

Hydraulic Civilizations

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is the theory by Karl A. Wittfogel, “any culture having an agricultural system that is dependent upon large-scale government-managed waterworks – productive and protective”. The theory as according to Wittfogel believed that wherever irrigation required substantial control, government representatives monopolized political power and dominated the economy, resulting in an absolutist managerial state. The officials were identified then with the dominant power and other centers of power. This topic discusses on how the theory of Hydraulic Civilization influenced the growth of early civilizations and how it generated the ideas of cultural development in the ancient times.

German-American historian Karl August Wittfogel in his book Oriental Despotism (1957) has written that civilizations whose agriculture was dependent upon large-scale waterworks for irrigation and flood control were called “hydraulic civilizations”. According to his observations, wherever irrigation required substantial and centralized control, the government representatives monopolized political power and dominated the economy, resulting in an absolutist managerial state. Thus, there was a close identification of these officials with the dominant religion and an atrophy of other centers of power. The forced labor for irrigation projects was directed by the bureaucratic network of the ruling government. According to Wittfogel, neither too little nor too much water leads necessarily to centralized water controls and governmental despotism. He says, an economy must be neither too primitive nor too advanced to institute in a water-deficient landscape a “specific hydraulic order of life”. He relates this order further saying it has its own type of division of labor and necessitates cooperation on a large scale. Irrigation and flood control, as well as roads, defense systems, palaces and tombs, are government enterprises demanding commandeered labor. Forced or corvee labor is not slave labor, but it is less free than wage-labor. The power of hydraulic states is greater than the power of government in free enterprise systems. It extends over society as a whole by limiting property rights, by taxation and confiscation and a variety of managerial measures that “prevent the non-governmental forces of society from crystallizing into independent bodies strong enough to counterbalance and control the political machine”. Often philanthropic in form, hydraulic despotism is oppressive in content, and its “total power spells total corruption, total terror, total submission and total loneliness”.

The difference between “hydraulic” and “non-hydraulic” societies is then one between despotic and less-despotic states, between concentrated and less-concentrated power monopolies and choosing the lesser evil, Wittfogel prefers the latter to the former.

Among these hydraulic civilizations, Wittfogel lists Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru.

Hydraulic Hypothesis:

Wittfogel has emphasized the thesis that large scale irrigation results in authoritative political patterns (Wittfogel and Goldfrank, 1943). He posits that in the “Hydraulic state”, one finds such authoritative political patterns as an “agro managerial despotism” and a “monopoly bureaucracy” (Wittfogel, 1957). The combined works of Wittfogel and Steward, have postulated that large scale irrigation requires centralized coordination and direction of effort which in turn leads to a greater political integration. Thus they propose that irrigation is a major “cause” of the eruption of centralized political authority and supra community political organisations and these “cause” led to the development of the early civilisations. The elements of Wittfogel-Steward argument focuses on the nature of the tasks in large scale irrigation. Watercourses must be dammed, canals must be dug and maintained periodically. Since it is a scarce commodity, it is to be apportioned; cooperative activity of several communities is required, since they will be linked by the same network of ditches and canals.

According to Wittfogel (1957:18), “if irrigation farming depends on the effective handling of a major supply of water – its tendency to gather in bulk – becomes institutionally decisive. A large quantity of water can be channeled and kept within bounds only by the use of mass labour; and this mass labour must be coordinated, disciplined and led. Thus a number of farmers eager to conquer arid lowlands and plains are forced to invoke the organizational devices which – on the basis of a pre-machine technology – offer one chance of success: they must work in cooperation with their fellows and subordinate themselves to a directing authority.”

The institution of hydraulic society differs structurally and apparently with regard to the hydraulic and managerial “density”. It also differs with respect to corrective “complexity”: the quality and dimension of active (productive) private property and private property based enterprise.

Karl Wittfogel (1957): Hydraulic Hypothesis

Source: slideplayer.com

Natural Setting of Hydraulic Society:

i. Historical conditions being equal: Many factors differentiated agrarian life prior to the industrial age, but none corresponded in institutional importance the appealing confutation offered by arid areas having accessible sources of water supply other than the on-the-spot rainfall. Under the defined conditions of pre-industrial agriculture, the natural configuration precisely affected man’s behavior as a provider of food and organizer of human relations. Of all tasks promulgated by the natural environment, it was the task given by a dubious water situation that keyed up man to develop hydraulic methods of social control.

ii. Several natural factors essential to farming: Water is not the only natural factor fundamental for successful crop raising. Anyone wishing to farm must have at their disposal useful plants, arable soil, ample humidity, appropriate temperature and a suitable relief of land.

All these elements are equally important. The deficit of any one of them demolishes the agronomic value of all the others. Cultivation remains futile unless human action can recoup for the total scarcity of any essential factor.

iii. Some essential factors defy compensating action; others respond more readily: The cogency of man’s settling actions depends on the ease with which a flawed natural factor can be replaced. Some factors must be considered constants because, under existing technological conditions, they are all practical purposes beyond man’s control. Humans can manipulate or if necessary change them.

iv. The specific qualities of water: Compared to the other essential natural prerequisites of agriculture, water is specific. In contrast to temperature and surface, water is neither too remote nor too massive to permit manipulation by humans.

Characteristics of Hydraulic Economy:

Division of Labour in Hydraulic Agriculture:

1. Protective and Preparatory Operations Separated From Farming Proper:

a. Large Scale Preparatory Operations: The combined agricultural activities of an irrigation farmer are comparable to that of a rainfall farmer. But the operations of the irrigation farmer includes on the spot ditching, damming and watering that are absent in the operations of the rainfall farmer. In pre-industrial civilisations, man gathered, stored and controlled water on a large scale, showing the distinct division between preparatory and ultimate labour characteristic of all hydraulic agriculture.

b. Large Scale Protective Operations: Flood control by the labours was the major objective in these operations. The community resort to preparatory labour to safeguard the productive use of water to safeguard its crop from periodic and excessive inundations.

2. Cooperation

a. Dimension: When a hydraulic society covers only a single locality, all adult male members were to be assigned to one or a few communal work teams. The changing needs and instances modify the size of the mobilized workforce. In hydraulic cultures having several independent sources of water supply, the task of controlling the moisture is performed by varying numbers of separate work teams.

b. Integration: Orderly cooperation requires planned integration. Even in the simplest operations, it necessitates substantial integrative action. In their more expansive diversities, they involve extensive and complex organizational planning.

c. Leadership: All teamwork requires a team leader, and the work of large integrated teams require on-call leaders and disciplinarians as well as overall organizers and planners.

d. Political Leadership: The effective management of the waterworks involves an organizational web which covers either the whole, or at least the dynamic core, of the country’s population. In consequence, those who control this network are uniquely prepared to wield supreme political power. No matter whether traditionally nonhydraulic leaders initiated or seized the incipient hydraulic “apparatus”, or whether the masters of this apparatus became the motive force behind all important public functions, there can be no doubt that in all these cases the resulting regime was decisively shaped by the leadership and social control required by hydraulic agriculture.

Heavy Water Works and Heavy Industry:

With regards to operational form, hydraulic agriculture exhibits important similarities to heavy industry. Both types of economic activities are preparatory to the ultimate processes of production. Heavy waterworks feed the ultimate agrarian producer one crucial auxiliary material: water; heavy industry provides auxiliary and raw materials for various kinds, including tools for finishing and heavy industry. Heavy waterworks fulfill important protective functions for the country at large; the protective installations of industry do not. The heavy water works of hydraulic agriculture are directed essentially by the government. The government also engages in certain other large enterprises, which in varying combinations, supplements the agro hydraulic economy proper.

Calendar making and Astronomy- Important function of the Hydraulic Regime:

Among the intellectual functions fulfilled by the leaders of agro-hydraulic activities, some are only indirectly connected with the organization of men and material; but the relation is highly significant nevertheless. Time keeping and calendar making are essential for the success of all hydraulic economies; and under special conditions special operations of measuring and calculating may be urgently needed. As a rule, the operations of time keeping and scientific measuring and counting were performed by official dignitaries or by priestly specialist attached to the hydraulic regime. Wrapped in the cloak of magic and astrology and immure with secrecy, these operations became the means for both improving hydraulic production and supporting the superior power of the hydraulic leaders.

Further Construction Activities; Customary in Hydraulic Societies:

With regards to the hydraulic and non-hydraulic construction, they can be categorized as follows:

I. Hydraulic Works

a. Productive Installations- Canals, aqueducts, reservoirs, sluices, and dykes for the purpose of irrigation

b. Protective Installations- Drainage canals, and dykes for flood control c. Aqueducts providing drinking water d. Navigation Canals

II. Non-hydraulic Works

a. Works of defense and communication- Walls and other structures of defense, highways

b. Edifices serving the public and personal needs of the secular and religious masters of hydraulic societies- Palaces and capital cities, Tombs, Temples.

Fig 4: civilization begins at the source of a water body

Source: pinterest

Examples of Early Hydraulic States:

The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians:

About 6,000–7,000 years ago, farming villages of the Near East and Middle East became urban centers. During the Neolithic age (ca. 5700–2800 BC), the first successful efforts to control the flow of water were driven by agricultural needs (irrigation) and were implemented in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The ancient Mesopotamian valley lacked good drainage and experienced many floods. The consequence was that the ancient Mesopotamians had to build canals to divert water from the rivers, to develop their canal irrigated agriculture. The large scale diversion of water by humans probably had its origin in ancient Mesopotamia. Other hydraulic technologies of the Mesopotamians included water tunnels, horse or donkey-powered chain lifts, and at least one major irrigation diversion dam. The ancient diversion dam, the Nimrud Dam, was built across the Tigris River, about 180 km upstream from Bagdad. The river water was diverted through the Nahrawan Canal to irrigate an area extending over 100 km to the present town of Baquba. At Baquba this canal joined with the Diyala River to supplement its discharge for the 200 km reach of the Diyala in the ancient course from Baquba to the Tigris River at the modern day city of Kut. The ancient diversion dam and the canal not only irrigated the desert area but also transferred water from one river to another.

Artificial basin irrigation, established in Egypt by the first Dynasty (ca. 3100 BC), included deliberate flooding and draining using sluice gates and contained water by longitudinal and transverse dikes. This form consisted of a network of earthen banks, some parallel to the river and some perpendicular to the river that formed basins of various sizes. Floodwaters were diverted into the basins where the water was allowed to saturate the soil with the remaining water drained off to a down-gradient basin or to a canal. After the draining process was completed in a basin, crops were planted. Basins were supplied with water by feeder canals. The bed level of the feeder canal was midway between low Nile and ground level with a natural downstream slope less than the slope of the Nile. Dikes (levees) separated the basins with controls (masonry regulators) on the earthen embankments to control the flow of water into the basin. The basins were very level as a result of the water laden alluvium that deposited in the basins. During years of low flow in the Nile, basins were drained into the next downstream basin instead of back to the river.

According to the book, “Early Hydraulic Civilisation in Egypt” by Karl W Butzer he concludes with the following statements:

i. Most settlement sites of ten to twenty millennia ago were already situated on the immediate banks of the river Nile, and desert edge settlements or cemeteries have frequently been misinterpreted as steps in a comparatively late agricultural colonization of the valley. In fact, drainage was no general prerequisite to cultivation and artificial irrigation was an option desirable only to increase acreage and equalize year to year productivity of the naturally irrigated flood basin.

ii. Artificial irrigation, including deliberate flooding and draining by sluice gates and water contained by longitudinal and transverse dykes was established in the First Dynasty. Controlled irrigation was easiest among the smaller flood basin of southern Upper Egypt and further north on the eastern bank. In these areas, crops steadily increased at the expense of pastoral activities and the remaining tracts of “natural” vegetation.

Fig 5: Rise of Hydraulic Civilization

Source: pinterest

Summary

According to the Wittfogel and Steward watercourses must be dammed, canals must be dug and maintained periodically as it is a scarce commodity, it is to be apportioned; cooperative activity of several communities is required, since they will be linked by the same network of ditches and canals. A number of farmers eager to conquer arid lowlands and plains are forced to invoke the organizational devices which – on the basis of a pre-machine technology – offer one chance of success and they are compelled to work in cooperation with their fellows and subordinate themselves to a directing authority.

Many factors differentiated agrarian life prior to the industrial age, but none corresponded in institutional importance the appealing confutation offered by arid areas having accessible sources of water supply other than the on-the-spot rainfall.

Water is not the only natural factor fundamental for successful crop raising. Anyone wishing to farm must have at their disposal useful plants, arable soil, ample humidity, appropriate temperature and a suitable relief of land. Therefore, all these elements are equally important. The deficit of any one of them demolishes the agronomic value of all the others. Cultivation remains futile unless human action can recoup for the total scarcity of any essential factor.

The Characteristics of Hydraulic Economy includes Division of Labour in Hydraulic Agriculture, which is further subdivided into Protective and Preparatory Operations Separated From Farming Proper and comprises of (a) Large Scale Preparatory Operations and (b) Large Scale Protective Operations. Another important characteristic is Cooperation and it includes (a) Dimension, (b) Integration, (c) Leadership, (d) Political Leadership.

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References

Butler SS (1960) Irrigation systems of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. J Irrigation Drainage Div. Proceedings of ASCE, vol 86, No. IR 4, pp 59–79, December
Butzer KW (1976) Hydraulic civilization in Egypt: a study in cultural ecology. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
http://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/wittfogel05.htm. Accessed on 23rd March 2016
https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1958/04/wittfogel.htm. Accessed on 13 th March 2016
Wittfogel, K.A. 1957. Oriental Despotism: A comparative study of total power, Yale University Press, New Haven

Suggested Readings

Cohen, Mark. 1977. The food crisis in prehistory: overpopulation and the origins of agriculture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Cottrell, F. 1955. Energy and Society, McGraw – Hill, New York
Denham, Tim. 2011. Early agriculture and plant domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia. Current Anthropology 52(suppl. 4):S379–S395
Harris David.R. 2007. Agriculture, cultivation and domestication: exploring the conceptual framework of early food production. In Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives. T. Denham, J. Iriarte, and L. Vrydaghs, eds. Pp. 16–35. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast
Higham, C. 2008. Early states and civilizations. In D. M. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of archaeology. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science & Technology.
Karl.W.Butzer1976.Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: A Study in Cultural Ecology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Renfrew.C., 1972. The Emergence of Civilization, the Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. Methuen, London
Schneider , H.K. 1974. The Economic Man. Free Press, NY.
Smith, R. L.( ed) 1972. The Ecology of Man. Harper and Row, New York
Thomas,R.B. 1972. Human Adaptation to a High Andean Energy Flow system, Occasional Papers in Anthropology, No.7, The Pennsylvania State University, University park. Pp 135-53