THE FIBER REVOLUTION - TEXTILE EXTENSIFICATION, ALIENATION, AND SOCIAL-STRATIFICATION IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

One of the most significant transformations in the emergence of econom ically and socially complex societies has been the development of soci al groups with differential access to productive resources. Anthropolo gists have puzzled over the number of empirical cases suggesting that women have disproportionately lost access to productive resources. Thi s paper follows one such case-the development of textile workshops in Mesopotamia-to offer new insights into the alienation of women produce rs in the ancient Near East and the development of Mesopotamia's polit ical economies. During the transformation from a series of relatively self-sufficient communities to a highly integrated complex of rural an d urban settlements, a fundamental shift took place from the use of fl ax to the use of wool for the majority of textile production. This shi ft has extremely important implications for archaeologists' reconstruc tions of agricultural production, labor roles, and social relationship s. This paper explores the socioeconomic context of a change in the ma terials of textile production and its potential for explaining the dev elopment of important aspects of social complexity and political econo my in ancient Mesopotamia.