Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 20;107(16):7119-26. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1002470107. Epub 2010 Apr 12.
A major research problem in anthropology is the origin of the state and its bureaucratic form of governance. Of particular importance for evaluating theories of state origins are cases of primary state formation, whereby a first-generation state evolves without contact with any preexisting states. A general model of this process, the territorial-expansion model, is presented and assessed with archaeological data from six areas where primary states emerged in antiquity: Mesoamerica, Peru, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China. In each case, the evidence shows a close correspondence in time between the first appearance of state institutions and the earliest expansion of the state's political-economic control to regions lying more than a day's round-trip from the capital. Although additional research will add detail and clarity to the empirical record, the results to date are consistent with the territorial-expansion model, which argues that the success of such long-distance expansion not only demanded the bureaucratization of central authority but also helped provide the resources necessary to underwrite this administrative transformation.
人类学中的一个主要研究问题是国家的起源及其官僚治理形式。对于评估国家起源理论而言，特别重要的是原发性国家形成的案例，即第一代国家在没有与任何先前存在的国家接触的情况下发展起来。本文提出了一个关于这一过程的一般模型，即领土扩张模型，并利用来自古代原发性国家出现的六个地区的考古数据对其进行了评估：中美洲、秘鲁、埃及、美索不达米亚、印度河谷和中国。在每个案例中，证据都表明，国家机构的首次出现与国家政治经济控制向首都以外超过一天往返路程的地区的最早扩张之间，在时间上存在密切对应关系。尽管进一步的研究将为经验记录增添细节和清晰度，但迄今为止的结果与领土扩张模型一致，该模型认为，这种远距离扩张的成功不仅要求中央权力的官僚化，而且有助于提供必要的资源来支持这种行政变革。
