Life of Ancient Sumerians

Richard L.A. Sterba, Associate Professor at the University of Texas, explains that while the term "tabernacle comm wiz" is reminiscent of an " ecclesiastic body," the Sumerian temple communities(although religious at their origin(were essentially "a large-scale socioeconomic validation" (16). According to Sumerian thought process, the gods created homo to take on the unpleasant chores of daily life for them (Sterba 16). This thinking makes the creation of temple communities perfectly natural and logical in spite of appearance the framework of Sumerian religious beliefs. It as well facilitates a priest-driven regime that might not waste survived had it not existed under the breastplate of the temple.

A third reason for the formation of temple societies was that they provided organization for the workers. Within the ranks of the temple community, there was "specialization and detailed form of labour" for performing the necessary tasks that kept the community prosperous, much(prenominal) as delivering produce, harvesting reeds, and constructing buildings (Frankfort 63). Even the soldiers were professionals, who in peacetime worked in another(prenominal) capacities (Frankfort 63). The temple community was an egalitarian one, where everyone was equal

Like any other primitive community, the Sumerian temple community required much homopower. In order to beat crops, they used dikes and after partals, and as an agricultural society, there were galore(postnominal) workforce needed for tilling, sowing, tending, and harvesting the crops. The temple communities were a perfect resultant to these needs, as they provided not only a purpose for work(serving the gods(but also oversight and organization that made the work efficient. What the Sumerian state lacked in literacy and advanced technology they made up for in organization and a cooperative spirit. These are two commodities more than than valuable in the ancient world than modern man usually recognizes.

The impact of organization and cooperative work can be seen in some of the world's greatest monuments. The ancient pyramids of Egypt, for example, could not have been built without relentless hard work and many people unionized effectively in a group that worked together. Such was the case with the ancient Sumerians, who relied on the temple communities to organize them and their work, oversee the efforts, and ensure that everyone had sufficient food. Moreover, a community right(prenominal) the purvey of the temple would not only have been sinless of literate clerics who could keep the records, engage in planning, and organize the workers, it would have been a haphazard, every-man-for-himself community where many tasks would have gone unaccomplished and the unity of the community would have been absent. People joined together in a common purpose that is higher than themselves(service to their gods(accomplish far more than those who work alone with no common purpose.

Sterba, Richard L.A. "The Organization and caution of the Temple Corporations in Ancient Mesopotamia." The Academy of Management Review, 1.3, (July 1976), 16-26. JSTOR.
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