Chiefdoms

Eliot Werner Publications

2017

x, 357 p.

9780989824989

Chiefdoms from the beginning until now / Leonid E. Grinin and Andrey V. Korotayev -- The chiefdom in evolutionary perspective / Robert L. Carneiro -- Chiefdoms and their analogues : alternatives of social evolution at the societal level of medium cultural complexity / Leonid E. Grinin and Andrey V. Korotayev -- On chiefs and chiefdoms / Henri J.M. Claessen -- Multi-agent polities of the northern Central European plains, 600-900 A.D. / Ludomir R. Lozny -- Heterarchy and hierarchy among the ancient Mongolian nomads / Nikolay N. Kradin -- Chiefdom confederacies and state origins / D. Blair Gibson -- Complex chiefdom : precursor of the state or its analogue? / Leonid E. Grinin -- Chiefs, chieftaincies, chiefdoms, and chiefly confederacies : power in the evolution of political systems / Timothy K. Earle -- War in northern Ghana : chiefdom of Nanung, chiefless Konkomba, and the modern state / Peter Skalnik -- Beyond states and empires : chiefdoms and informal politics fifteen years later / Patrick Chabal, Gary M. Feinman, and Peter Skalnik -- Chiefdoms : beyond time? / Andrey V. Korotayev and Leonid E. Grinin.

What many anthropologists regard as the major step in political development occurred when, for the first time in history, previously autonomous villages gave up their individual sovereignties and were brought together into a multi-village political unit - the chiefdom. Though long neglected as a major stage in history, in recent years the chiefdom has been the focus of increased atttention. As its importance has been more fully recognized, it has become the object of serious scholarly analysis and intepretation. In this volume specialists in political evolution draw on data from ethnography, archaeology, and history and apply fresh insights to enhance the study of the chiefdom, from how this form of poltical organization first arose to the role it played in giving rise to the next major stage in the development of human society - the state

Английский