All about the ancient tribes
While chiefdoms are societies in which everyone is ranked relative to the chief, states are socially stratified into largely distinct classes in terms of wealth, power, and prestige.
The cultural anthropologist Elman Service devised a model in 1962 for classifying human societies into four general categories— bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states —based on their capacity to support larger populations at higher densities.
How do chiefdoms differ from states? A) Chiefdom status systems are based on differential access to resources. Chiefdoms lack socioeconomic stratification and stratum endogamy.
How do bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states ” evolve “? they evolved over time to adapt to the changed in the environment or because of new inventions or technology.
Anthropologists generally recognize four kinds of political systems, two of which are uncentralized and two of which are centralized. Uncentralized systems. Band society. Centralized governments. Chiefdom. Supranational political systems. Empires. Leagues.
Examples of chiefdoms include the Trobriand and Tongan Islanders in the Pacific, the Maori of New Zealand, the ancient Olmec of Mexico (only known archaeologically), the Natchez of the Mississippi Valley, the Kwakwaka’wakw of British Columbia, and the Zulu and Ashanti in Africa.
By definition, a band was a small, egalitarian, kin-based group of perhaps 10–50 people, while a tribe comprised a number of bands that were politically integrated (often through a council of elders or other leaders) and shared a language, religious beliefs, and other aspects of culture.
A band is the smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families and no formal leadership positions. Tribes have larger populations but are organized around family ties and have fluid or shifting systems of temporary leadership.
Force is simply embedded in structural relations, and through the introduction of slaves, uneven growth in access to land and other resources, and the gradual mo- nopolization of the legitimate use of violence, chiefdoms become states.
Anthropologists and archaeologists have demonstrated through research that chiefdoms are a relatively unstable form of social organization. They are prone to cycles of collapse and renewal, in which tribal units band together, expand in power, fragment through some form of social stress, and band together again.
Chiefdom, in anthropology, a notional form of sociopolitical organization in which political and economic power is exercised by a single person (or group of persons) over many communities.
Each chiefdom is an autonomous, territorial, as well as socio-political unit headed by a paramount chief who is traditionally chosen from one of the ruling houses, that is one of the descent groups whose ancestors are reputed to have founded the chiefdom.
Tribes have a variety of mechanisms for controlling behavior and settling conflicts. Compensation is a payment demanded to compensate for damage. Mediation aims to resolve disputes so that the prior social relationship between the disputants is maintained and harmony is restored.
Bands are essentially associations of families living together. They are loosely allied by marriage, descent, friendship, and common interest. The primary integrating mechanism for these societies is kinship. Bands are extremely egalitarian–all families are essentially equal.
In what way are chiefdoms similar to bands and tribes? They are mostly classless societies. Their top political positions are only temporary.