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 Marked accumulation Wealth & Power transcends lineage & clan. larger territories. Ruling class with power to gather agricultural surpluses to call forth labor. How did social stratification come about? Deliberate Innovation: Hunting-gathering evolutionary dead end; requires perfect ecological balance technology & greater yields. Or, gradual imperceptible shift. 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 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 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: 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. 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. Conflict arising out of social stratification isn’t cause of state formation. 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: city walls warfare monopoly of force in leadership. External Conflict Theories Concerns: 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; 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 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