M., W., F., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. Changes in intellectual attitudes in France and the French Revolution. The Enlightenment, the Russian and Turkish Revolutions, and religious revivalism in Iran are considered. Comparative studies from India and Sri Lanka. Marxist and structuralist theories concerning religion are examined in historical contexts.
Students can specialize in regions and topics.
12 Examines the development and structure of the earliest state-level societies in the ancient world. Archaeological approaches are used to analyze the major factors behind the processes of urbanization and state formation in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Central Asia, the Indus Valley, and Mesoamerica. The environmental background as well as the social, political, and economic characteristics of each civilization are compared to understand the varied forces that were involved in the transitions from village to urbanized life. Discussion sections utilize archaeological materials from the Peabody Museum and Semitic Museum collections to study the archaeological methods used in the class. No previous knowledge of archaeology is necessary.