--- #TODO - **Cosmological legitimation** (Eliade; Ansary) Mircea Eliade and Tamim Ansary both show that river-valley priesthoods developed star-calendars to regulate planting, while steppe shamans used celestial visions for trance-orders—two very different “waters and stars” logics emerging from geography. - **Writing’s uneven spread** (Christian) David Christian documents how cuneiform and hieroglyphs flowed slowly westward—never taking root on the mobile step—so that steppe leaders remained oracular rather than bureaucratic, legitimizing themselves through charisma and ritual rather than tablets. - **Flexible/polygamous clan networks:**  In early river-valley states—where canals demanded massive corvée labor and seasonal rites—polygamy and broad clan support systems (uncles, cousins) maintained social order.  The transcript’s “flexible family” in sub-Saharan traditions recalls that: communal child‐rearing, male war bands, and animist rituals to appease water-spirits all depended on extended kin rather than the lone patriarch. - The first states formed primarily through conquest or as defensive alliances against invaders. State formation dramatically reduced violence compared to pre-state peoples. (Reference: _War, Peace and War_ by Peter Turchin) - Early civilizations had more open attitudes toward sexuality than later periods. Examples include Egyptian pharaohs performing public masturbation rituals and Sumerian temple prostitutes engaging in "sacred sex" to honor gods. Many ancient societies literally worshipped phallic symbols. (Reference: _Sex and Power in History_ by Amaury de Riencourt) uruk - 25k residents, worlds first city?