文明曙光期美索不達米亞膜拜文化衍生之農村城市化過程及其內涵之探討

The Approach on the Developments of Mesopotamian Village Urbanization Due to the Religious Worshipping Culture at the Initial Stage of Civilization

10.3966/101632122017120102006

翁楷傑(Kai-Jie Wong)

聖經 ； 宗教 ； 先知 ； 社群 ； 美索不達米亞 ； 農村 ； 貿易城市 ； Religion ； God ； Prophet ； Ancestor Spirit ； Collective Worshipping

建築學報

102期（2017 / 12 / 31）

101 - 128

繁體中文

宗教的主體是『神(God)』，但神的性格亦即神在塵世的角色，卻由祈求神呵護的普羅大眾中，以建構永恆性群居環境為志業的先知(Prophet)或聖賢之詮釋而得。因此宗教具有配合人類社會的演進步調適時調整價值觀，更新符合當時期社會的教義，發揮主導社會的本質。這種超越種族的本質，使宗教成為人類最悠久最偉大的文化。先知的詮釋，蘊藏了凡界社會的兩極性(Polarity)內涵，往往是宗教得以主導文明的關鍵。原因為家與社群的特性不僅不相同，並且常有互相抵觸的情形；但家卻是社群的基本單元，沒有健全的家庭為基礎，社群無從成長茁壯。因此，神界有供家族膜拜以庇佑家族後代的祖靈；更有社會大眾集體膜拜，共同祈求神的庇佑，以鍵結零散家庭於一個整體的眾神，即掌控超自然現象的天地間的神靈。這種洞察社會結構的詮釋法，衍生人類集體膜拜神靈祈求庇佑的信仰，不分種族不分時代均極為顯著。神祠、神壇，宏偉的神殿是膜拜空間的具象化結果，不僅是信仰虔誠的標記，更是農村城市化後，締造文明的人為印記。聖經中的名城耶利哥(Jerico)是迄今所見人類最早的農村，最早成形的城市則南美索不達米亞的蘇美，最早的文明對後世恆有不可取代的主導地位。因此，本研究以耶利哥的盛衰，源於宗教之史實為開端。之後依循農耕條件相若但膜拜文化不彰，缺乏社群鍵結力而固步自封之北美索不達米亞繁榮農村的沒落，及經由集體膜拜盛行的南美索不達米亞農村城市化互為論證脈絡。並以地緣關係密切的希伯來聖經為結，剖析早期宗教主導下人類最早的城市起源過程及其內涵。尤其隨同城市 化過程，就在貿易對口酋邦中創建有統治權的貿易基地，即今日所稱之殖民地造就的城市霸權所展現不尋常意義，不僅是城市內涵的真諦，更是當今城市發展及城市學研究中所忽視但頗重要的核心理念。

The main core of religion is the deity that it praises, and yet the characteristics of different deities also equal to that of the role that they exhibit in the human world and are usually depicted by the prophets who aim to be an altruistic character within the society, therefore, aspects of religion usually evolve along with the evolution of human society and gets updated to cater to the society's values, which is obviously a proof that it does have the nature of leading the society toward the ideal world. This quality that surpasses the boundaries of races enabled religion to become the greatest of all human culture. However, the depictions of religion by prophets have hidden the bipolar nature of the common human world, and yet this part is actually key to how religion gets to take the lead in the evolution of human civilization, and the cause of this lies in the differences between family and social community- their nature not only differ also collapse with that of each other. Despite of this fact, family is still indeed a basic component of a social community; if there's no sound family, there won't be any chance for any social community to come into existence, hence, there are, in the realm of spiritual beings, deities of ancestors for families to worship in order to wish for protection for their descendants. There are even deities that the general public all worship to wish for a common wellness, through them, different families are able to be joint-these deities are believed to be the ones that are able to control all supernatural phenomena. The observations that the prophets of the human society addressed on the structures of the society as well as the religion that induced collective worshipping of common deities for protection have always been obvious despite of race and generation. Shrines, altars, and magnificent temples are all clear outcomes of religion outside of religious worshipping, and they are not only symbols of religious devoutness but also marks of urbanized villages and the birth of civilization. Accordingly, this research starts from one of the first villages in history, Jerico, and how its rise and fall relate to religion, and then compare the evolution of a collective worship-devoted farming city on northern Mesopotamian Plain to that of a rather closed-off, lacked-of-social-solidarity yet still prosperous village in the south of the Mesopotamian Plain to demonstrate the claimed theory. The process of analyzing also explains the origin of humans' earliest cities and the structures of the religion-driven city states in the ancient times. At the initial stage of urbanization, chiefdoms even established long-term governing trading basis, which become so-called colony today. This could qualify as city hegemony with unusual meanings. It is not only a true concept for cities, but also a core concept on contemporary urban development and urban studies.

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