Regional Approaches to Society and Complexity - Alex R. Knodell
13. Complexities and Emergence: The Case of Argos
Regional Approaches to Society and Complexity - Alex R. Knodell
Christopher Witmore [+]
Description
This chapter reconsiders the notion of complexity through a condensed case study of the Argive polis. Rather than begin with a formative entity toward a particular end, it sets out the conditions that make the democratic polis possible at the beginning of the third century BC when Argive statecraft had come to be experienced as tenuous and in need of protection. Argos, moreover, is a heterogeneous assemblage that self-defines its components retroactively. Understanding the polis as a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts affords some secondary considerations regarding the emergence and endurance of such sociopolitical complexities. Ultimately, alternative definitions of both complexity and emergence are revealed by way of conclusion.