cess of establishing political authority based on the territorial snot achieved at one particular moment in history. Much of istry (indeed, much of world history since the Greeks) the struggle of terricoral authority over farmily, blood, and es. process of replacing kinship and cribal alliances with a cerrto- itis of place” can, however, be seen in che constitutional ‘aevibuted to the Athenian nable Cleisthenes® in 508 8.c. sthenes was not a democrat; his reform of Athenian politics was iy ntended to win popular support For himself in his secugele jer noble families, But che inadvertenc results of his reforms establish the necessary basis for democracy: a territorial state fh eommoners as citizens had a stake in government. scription of those reforms is contained in a document called = Athenian Consticution,” discovered in Egypt only a hundred ago and though to have been writcen by the philosopher fe (984-322 sc.) around 330 .c.¢ fern scholars doubr that Cleischenes created the demes* (local orhoods) that were the basis of his reforms, Some existed = Bur by making the demes the root of politcal organization, he edly undercut the power of dominant families, As demes were “The Athenian Constitution,” in Aristotle, Polis, and the Athenian ington (London: David Campbell ablshers, 1959)3/ Identity in Caste and Territorial Societies = cere in Caste and Territorial Societies Notice how the constitutional reform combined a sense of local, residential identity with citizenship in a larger city-state by tying city, country, and coastal demes together in each new “tribe.” Why were these new tribes less “tribal” chan the old ones? What would be the ‘modern equivalent of these new tnbes? Was democracy possible without a shift from kinship to territorial or civic identity? THINKING Territorial sovereignty is something we take for granted. lt means the law of the land. Regardless of the beliefs of aur parents or ancestors, we obey the law of the territory. In che United States, we are bound {0 observe the law ofthe nation and the law ofthe state and municic pal ordinances. We do not take our own Family law with us when we ‘move from one town or state or country to another. When we go to Japan, we are bound by Japanese lav, even ifwe are not Japanese. In the modem world, sovereignty ukimate authori, sted eo territory. Because this is s0 obvious tous in modern society itis difcul ro imagine that this was not always the case Historians have ro acknowledge that things they and their Societies take for granted may nor have always existed: rather, they have developed throughout history. McNeil’'s interpretation of the essenrial difference between India and Greece makes such a leap. Many people have pointed out che unique Athenian invention of democracy. But McNeill recognized that the Athenians invented democracy because they had already invenced something more fundamental ~cerritoral sovereignty, politics, government, ctizen- ship. How does “The Athenian Constitution” suppore McNeilre interpretation? ‘The overthrow of the Pisistratid tyranny lfe the city split into two fae- tions under Isagoras and Cleisthenes respectively. The former, a son of | Tisander, had supported the tyrants; the latter was an Alemaeonid. Cleisthenes, defeated in the political clubs, won over the people hy offer: ing citizen rights to the masses, Thereupon Isagoras, who had fallen be. § hind in the race for power, once more invoked the help of his friend Cleomenes and persuaded him to exorcise the pollutions that is, to expel the Alemaconidae, who were believed stil to be accursed. Clesthenes | accordingly withdrew from Artica with a small band of adherents, while Cleomenes proceeded to drive out seven hundred Athenian families. The Spartan next attempred to dissolve the Council and to set up Isagoras with three hundred of his supporters as the sovereign authority. The‘ouncil, however, resisted; the populace flew ro arms; and Cleomenes ith Isagoras and all their forces took refuge in the Acropolis, to which “the people laid siege and blockaded them for rwo days. On the third “day it was agreed that Cleomenes and his followers should withdraw. {Cleisthenes and his fellow exiles were recalled, The people were now in control, and Cleisthenes, their leader, was recognized as head of the popular party. This was not surprising; for the jemaconidae were largely responsible for the overthrow of the tyrants, ith whom they had been in conflict during most of their rule. The people, therefore, had every grounds for confidence in Cleisthenes. Accordingly, three years after the destruction of the tyr- anny, in the archonship of Isagoras, he used his influence as leader of the popular party to carry out a number of reforms. (A) He divided the population into ten tribes instead of the old four. His purpose here was “go interinix the members of the tribes so that more persons might have tivic rights; and hence the advice “not to notice the tribes,” which was ~ tendered to those who would examine the lists of the clans. (B) He in- Greased the membership of the Council from 400 to 500, each tribe snow contributing fifty instead of one hundred as before. His reason for snot organizing the people into twelve tribes was to avoid the necessity ‘of using the existing division into trittyes, which would have meant ~ failing to regroup the population on a satisfactory basis. (C) He divided the country into thirty portions—ten urban and suburban, ten coastal, and ten inland—cach containing a certain number of demes. These portions he called trittyes, and assigned three of them by lot to each ttibe in such a way that each should have one portion in each of the ‘three localities just mentioned. Furthermore, those who lived in any given deme were to be reckoned fellow demesmen. This arrangement | ias intended to protect new citizens from being shown up as such by “the habitual use of family names. Men were to be officially described by the names of their demes; and itis thus thar Athenians still speak of ‘one another. Demes had now supplanted the old naucraries,’ and Cleis- - thenes therefore appointed Demarchs whose duties were identical with those of the former Naucrari. He named some of the demes from their _ localities, and others from their supposed founders for certain areas _ no longer corresponded to named localities. On the other hand, he al- lowed everyone to retain his family and clan and religious rites accord~ __ ing to ancestral custom. He also gave the ten tribes names which the Delphic oracle had chosen ont of one hundred selected national - heroes. ‘Wory-cight subdivisions ofthe old forties, each responsibe for one galley ofthe Athenian nay. (E4.]