Week 3
Social Hierarchy & State Formation
Humans gradually turned from
Seasonal settlements
based on a few
domesticated plants
and animals
Then toward yearround farming
To first true cities and states
Chiefly political systems

Limited number of prestigious social
positions.

Inherited and held within family or kin groups.

Finite territory.
Characteristics of States

Permanent administrative bureaucracy

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Marked accumulation Wealth & Power

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transcends lineage & clan.
larger territories.
Ruling class with power

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to gather agricultural surpluses
to call forth labor.
How did social stratification come about?

Deliberate Innovation:

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Hunting-gathering evolutionary dead end;
requires perfect ecological balance
technology & greater yields.
Or, gradual imperceptible shift.
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different states appeared hundreds of years apart
minimal commerce between them
shorter lifespan, worse health, less free time.
JamesWoodburn: Immediate Return vs
Delayed Return

Immediate return- Common to foragers

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Means that a forager can simply go into the
environment and find food. Less need for long
term planning.
There are exceptions: the Athabaskan people of
the Northwest Coast.
They had hierarchies of chiefs and commoners;
relied on fishing and hunting of sea mammals.
JamesWoodburn: Immediate Return vs
Delayed Return

Delayed return- Common to Agriculturalists

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Farming needs more need for long term planning:
If I want to eat in November, I have to plant in
March.
May have facilitated the development of a
hierarchy of specialists, including leaders to
coordinate the tasks of planning.
Perhaps this is why the development of elaborate
hierarchies emerged after the invention of
agriculture.
How did social stratification come about?

Conflict theory of Social Stratification:

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Based on assumption that one group is taking
advantage of another.
Integrative theory of social stratification:

Based on the assumption that social hierarchy is
necessary.
Conflict Theory

Internal conflict:


competition in society for scarce resources.
External Conflict:

warfare with outsiders.
Internal Conflict theories
Frederick Engels:
Origin of the Family, Private Property & the State.
 Earliest social organization was communistic.

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Shared equally
No personal possession.
Leadership egalitarian or non-existent.
Internal Conflict theories
Technological innovations gave rise to surplus;
 Group of non-producers arose.
 Private property concomitant of commodity production.
 Owners of means of production & sellers of human labor.
 Control over inheritance of property= nuclear family.
 Elite erected structure of centralized force to protect its
class interests=State
Internal Conflict: Morton Fried

Individual access to resources & positions of
prestige.

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Conflict arising out of social stratification isn’t cause
of state formation.

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state already implicit because maintenance of class
requires power be concentrated with elite.
merely a prior condition.
Incipient stratification is unstable; society must either


disintegrate
continue to centralize power.
External Conflict Theories

States are born of strife & war.
Dominant group over weaker group;

Evidence:
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city walls
warfare
monopoly of force in leadership.
External Conflict Theories

Concerns:
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society can only marshal forces according to
available levels of population
warfare among people is more likely to prevent
state formation than to cause it.
groups could disperse.
Robert Carneiro

Circumscribed agricultural land;
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limits ability to disperse.
More likely band together to defend themselves.
Losers will submit to winners’ rule.
Integrative Theory: Elman Service

Certain efforts require centralization of effort;
task often falls on big men or others of
exceptional talent

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Done through redistribution.
generalized reciprocity-not ownership of private
property.
Leadership based on individuals unreliable; need
for permanent institutionalized hierarchy.
Use of force= failure of state to function well