contemporary evidence from ancient Eurasia now points to a different pattern, where urban administrative systems inspire a cultural counter-reaction (a further example of schismogenesis), in the form of squabbling highland princedoms (‘barbarians’, from the perspective of the city dwellers),6 which eventually leads to some of those princes establishing themselves in cities and systematizing their power: Administration Charismatic Politics Sovereignty (by schismogenesis) This may well have happened in some cases – Mesopotamia, for example – but it seems unlikely to be the only way in which such
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