• Nagarjuna [he/him]
    hexagon
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 years ago

    There's a hypothesis for the beginning of the state that goes as follows:

    Sedentary communities are often surrounded by nomadic raiders sustain themselves in part off the products made by the sedentists.

    But, raiding too often is unsustainable, so they'd keep track of who they'd raided, and the collections became more routine. For various reasons, the nomadic raiders would settle down as a ruling class.

    So in this account, the state doesn't emerge to manage class contradictions, but as a form of class rule.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      That's...interesting...matches some things like the Nordic invasions of England etc.

      But once the raiding is formalised, that's kind of an immediate class contradiction in production isn't it?