Cities - Environmental Transformations - page 101

systems of trade and exchange can emerge. On the
basis of these systems it becomes possible for
certain segments of society to no longer have to
concern themselves with the production of their
own food.
In his classic 1961 analysis of the historical
evolution of urban life, The City in History , the
America historian Lewis Mumford highlighted
the role that surplus agricultural production played
in defining the form and function of cities.
Mumford (1961: 29) observes:

In view of its satisfying rituals but limited
capabilities, no mere increase in numbers
would, in all probability, suffice to turn a
village into a city. This change needed an
outer challenge to pull the community
sharply away from the central concerns of
nutrition and reproduction: a purpose
beyond mere survival.

Mumford essentially argues that cities are
not, first and foremost, about a human desire to

Figure 6.1 Settlements in early bronze age Mesopotamia
Source: Wikimedia Creative Commons