Building on this model in a massive monograph, Norman K. Gottwald, then of Union Theological Seminary in New York, did not emphasize the role of religion, as Mendenhall had done, but explained the move to the hill country as an application of a universal Marxist paradigm. The subtitle of his book refers to “liberated Israel.” Its reasoning is informed by what the author considers a universal anthropological or sociological model: The early peasants who became Israel successfully emerged from the Canaanite cities as a result of a “peasant revolt.” The revolt was fueled not by Yahwism, as Mendenhall maintained, but by “socio-political egalitarianism.”2 The earliest Israelites, according to this theory, were really Canaanites. To make my position clear at the outset, I have dubbed Gottwald’s theory, which has become wildly popular in academia, the “revolting peasant theory.”
I also find the theory revolting.