Particular to no specific place, he argued, the barbarian age began when previously peaceful and unified communities gave up subsistence living and became predatory, venturing beyond their territory to plunder the resources of neighboring tribes. The result was the fracturing of the social unit into two distinct and unequal classes, one dedicated to warfare and one tasked with domestic labor.

Joanna Merwood-Salisbury

Barbarian Architecture

Thorsten Veblen's Chicago