A Sociologists and anthropologists classify societal groups based on their access to resources, prestige, or power. There are typically four classifications of society and this has been true throughout history. At the bottom end of the societal scale are clans, followed by tribes, chiefdoms — and at the highest are the states.
B Clans consist of a small group of people who are typically hunters or gatherers. People in a group tend to number less than 100 and hold no specific home, which allows for flexibility in exploiting the wild and gathering food resources.8Members of the clans are typically related to each other through marriage or descent and the group as a whole does not have any formal ranks of leadership. As such,1the economic disparity is non-existent between different members due to the vast similarities.
Today there are few societal groups that fit the profile, and most are relegated to areas like the Hadza of Tanzania. They are considered to be one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes within the African region and their population numbers 1300. Experts consider the small group to be very important as they best represent how humans existed and survived in the past. In fact, the Hadza hunters use many of the same methods that were used thousands of years ago. 9They hunt animals with bows and arrows that are hand-made and create their own shelter with dried grass and branches. As was the case centuries ago, they own very few possessions, especially compared to their modern day counterparts in Western societies.
Clans are also very mobile and their short-term homes tend to be composed of seasonally occupied camps and other smaller or more specialised pieces of land. One thing that remains consistent is that clans seek out areas where large mammals can be killed and butchered. Equally as important for clans is access to make tools or perform other sensitive activities.
C Tribes are mostly larger than the mobile hunter-gatherer clan groups and it would be usual for a group to include a population above a few thousand. They tend to nourish mostly on cultivated plants and domesticated animals.2People belonging to the tribe societal group are mostly farmers, but could also be nomadic with a mobile economy based on the exploitation of livestock. 3Tribes are generally multi-community societies, with the individual communities integrated into the large society through kinship ties.
10Some of the recovered evidence of tribes across the world includes the first farms of the Danube valley in Europe. Others include the Pueblos of the American Southwest, or the early farming village of Catalhoyuk which makes up part of modern Turkey. Although some tribes have officials and even a‘capital’or seat of government, such officials lack the economic base necessary for effective use of power.
D Chiefs are graded on a scale of prestige with senior members holding more power. The more senior chiefs are also tasked with governing the society. Prestige and rank are determined by how closely a person is related to a senior chief but there is no true stratification into classes.
11Chiefs also benefit from living in a centre of power with luxuries others barely have access to, in particular temples and residences. 4Chiefs obviously benefit the most from their power and prestige through surplus local craft products and food which are paid as a tribute. A chief could then keep the tribute to satisfy workers or redistribute them to his subjects. Chiefdoms typically vary greatly in size from one society to another, but a typical range is between 5000 and 20000 people.
E Statesmen share many of the characteristics of a chief but with one key difference. 12Statesmen tend to have absolute power as a king or a queen, which grants them explicit authority to create laws and enforce them through an armed force. 5The ruling lineage is viewed as the ultimate owner of the land and their luxuries extend beyond the temples enjoyed by chiefs.This is made possible by lower-ranked people who have an obligation to pay taxes to the statesmen.
Statesmen are typically not far removed from capital houses where the bureaucratic administration enforces the collection of revenue and key responsibilities. A centralised location also allows for easier distribution of the revenue to other government members, armed forces, and craft specialists.7Early states tend to have developed redistribution systems to best support the essential services and proper functioning of the government.
F Elman Service, William Sanders, and Joseph Marino are experts in the field of societal hierarchy and credited in part with discovering this knowledge. Service provides a good framework to help organise our thoughts on the topic through various papers and books. He, in particular, is credited with developing a ‘managerial benefits’ theory of society which hypothesises that societies with four levels of hierarchy including a centralised leadership were beneficial to all. At the top of the command, the statesmen or leaders offered benefits to the followers and over time these benefits grew in complexity and improved the whole society.
13Service's research also led him to conclude that class war was not present in ancient civilisation. In fact, those on the lower-end of the societal scale were eager to volunteer and perform tasks instead of being forced to do so by the leadership. He also found that arguments or struggles took place among the political elite.
