The Russian Version of the Sociology of Antiquity

Abstract

The article reviews the book “The Banks of the Oecumene. Historical Sociology about the Paradoxes of the Economic Life of the Ancient East” by the Russian scientist S.A.Davydov. The book is comprised of three chapters: the first chapter deals with the genesis of a state; the second — with the early history of ancient Egypt and its “mobilizing economy”, and the third — with the ancient Mesopotamian society, particularly, with freedom and slavery in its economic activity. The author of the article points out that references to scholarly works in other sources and factual lapses significantly impair the quality of this work. A considerable part of the book is a review of selected fragments from several famous books (for example, “The Stone Age Economics” by M. Sahlins), which impacts the independence of the work. The problem lies not only in the lack of original material for the book, but in the fact that Davydov is not sufficiently aware of the history of the development of scholarship about the ancient world, and therefore often deems relevant such theories that have been recognized as outdated for a long time. Davydov’s key ideas are not as fresh and bold as he thinks. For example, when the author questions the despotic nature of ancient Eastern societies (Egypt and Mesopotamia), he challenges a stereotypical perception of despotism, which is far from the knowledge about ancient societies and not connected with contemporary scholarly theories. The author’s reflections about “freedom — slavery” in the ancient world only come close to the ideas put forward by M.Finley and I.Gelb more than fifty years ago. Nevertheless, the attempt of a historical and sociological analysis of ancient history deserves attention and may be useful for the development of historical scholarship.