This paper argues about the State of ancient Egypt and to summarize Allen’s findings with characterization's of labor, wealth, and power in ancient Egypt. To start off in Allen's article it says "successful states in the ancient world depend on the ability of elites to extract a surplus from farmers and other produce and despite the Pharaoh's claim's to control the Nile's flood, it is difficult to discern any productivity contribution that the Pharaoh, or the priesthood, or the aristocracy made". The main function of the Pharaonic state back then was to transfer a considerable fraction of the income produced by Egypt's farmers to an unproductive aristocracy. In ancient Egypt's the agriculture and the creation of social surplus was
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In agriculture produced new kinds of foods that had novel characteristics.There is evidence of the harvesting of wild millet and sorghum—and some suggestion that the sorghum was in the process of domestication—from a site in the southern Egypt desert c. 6000 B.C. (Wendorf et al., 1992, pp. 721–724). However, the relevance of this discovery for Egyptian history is limited since agriculture of the Nile was not based on sorghum or millet. The enhanced storability of food had two important implications for social evolution In the first place, storability allowed a more effective approach to risk.The well-being of foragers in the Nile basin depended critically on each year’s flood and Second, the enhanced storability of cultivated food made early farmers more exploitable than their foraging predecessors had been because they became prime targets for tax and rent collectors. The Second of the four was Production per Hectare. The transition to agriculture probably increased the production of food per hectare (Bender, 1975, pp. 5–7; Cohen 1977, p. 39). Butzer (1976, pp. 82–84) reviewed evidence about population density in hunting/gathering societies and primitive agriculture concluding when population went up production had to go up as well. The Third or the four ways was Production Per worker. Whether the Shift from foraging to farming led t a production surplus depending on what happened to output per worker rather than on what happened to …show more content…
Whether the total number of hours worked per year increased or not, however, the less important question in understanding the rise of the Egyptian state than is the question of whether farm Families produced more than their consumption requirements over the course of the year or the seasonality of their work year. The fourth is Seasonality of Labor. Agriculture changed the seasonal pattern of labor and generated a labor surplus that could be mobilized for work away from the farm. From Allen's research employment became seasonal. While this is generally true of farming, it was particularly so in Egypt due to the flooding of the Nile. From July to Autumn, the farmland was under water, so there was little for the farmer to do except tend the animals. Farmers worked intensively the rest of the year cultivating grain. The time of the flood was the time when labor was available for off-farm use. This was the labor surplus mobilized for pyramid
In agriculture produced new kinds of foods that had novel characteristics.There is evidence of the harvesting of wild millet and sorghum—and some suggestion that the sorghum was in the process of domestication—from a site in the southern Egypt desert c. 6000 B.C. (Wendorf et al., 1992, pp. 721–724). However, the relevance of this discovery for Egyptian history is limited since agriculture of the Nile was not based on sorghum or millet. The enhanced storability of food had two important implications for social evolution In the first place, storability allowed a more effective approach to risk.The well-being of foragers in the Nile basin depended critically on each year’s flood and Second, the enhanced storability of cultivated food made early farmers more exploitable than their foraging predecessors had been because they became prime targets for tax and rent collectors. The Second of the four was Production per Hectare. The transition to agriculture probably increased the production of food per hectare (Bender, 1975, pp. 5–7; Cohen 1977, p. 39). Butzer (1976, pp. 82–84) reviewed evidence about population density in hunting/gathering societies and primitive agriculture concluding when population went up production had to go up as well. The Third or the four ways was Production Per worker. Whether the Shift from foraging to farming led t a production surplus depending on what happened to output per worker rather than on what happened to …show more content…
Whether the total number of hours worked per year increased or not, however, the less important question in understanding the rise of the Egyptian state than is the question of whether farm Families produced more than their consumption requirements over the course of the year or the seasonality of their work year. The fourth is Seasonality of Labor. Agriculture changed the seasonal pattern of labor and generated a labor surplus that could be mobilized for work away from the farm. From Allen's research employment became seasonal. While this is generally true of farming, it was particularly so in Egypt due to the flooding of the Nile. From July to Autumn, the farmland was under water, so there was little for the farmer to do except tend the animals. Farmers worked intensively the rest of the year cultivating grain. The time of the flood was the time when labor was available for off-farm use. This was the labor surplus mobilized for pyramid