Social
Complexity Charts
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Lewis Henry Morgan's Scheme for Social Evolution in Ancient Society |
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Ethnical Periods |
Arts of Subsistence |
The Family |
Systems of Consanguinity & Affinity |
Government |
Property |
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Older Period of Savagery |
Fruits, nuts, roots, living in groves, caves, in trees |
Promiscuous Intercourse =========== Consanguine Family |
Malayan System (Hawaiian) |
Consanguine Horde |
Property Inconsiderable |
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Middle Period of Savagery |
Fish subsistence, use of fire |
Punaluan Family |
Turanian and Gandowanian System (Iroquois) |
Matrilineal Gens; Tribes |
Lands owned by tribes; children inherit from mother |
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Later Period of Savagery |
Invention of bow and arrow |
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Older Period of Barbarism |
Pottery |
Syndiasmian Family |
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Middle Period of Barbarism |
Domestication of animals (Eastern Hemisphere), Cultivation by irrigation (Western Hemisphere) |
Patrilineal Gens |
Large increase of personal property. Land owned in common. Inheritance of father's property. |
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Later Period of Barbarism |
Manufacture of Iron |
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Civilization |
Invention of phonetic alphabet; Production of literary records |
Patriarchal Family; Monogamian Family |
Aryan, Semitic and Uralian System (Eskimo) |
State |
Property in masses; individual ownership; state ownership |
Preindustrial Political Systems: An Evolutionary Typology
Source: Ted Lewellen (1983) Political Anthropology. South Hadley, MS: Bergin and Garvey.
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UNCENTRALIZED |
CENTRALIZED |
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Band |
Tribe |
Chiefdom |
State |
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Type of Subsistence |
Hunting-gathering; little or no domestication |
Extensive agriculture (horticulture) & pastoralism |
Extensive agriculture; intensive fishing |
Intensive agriculture |
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Type of Leadership |
Informal & situational leaders; may have a headman who acts as arbiter in group decision-making |
Charismatic headman with no "power" but some authority in group decision-making |
Charismatic chief with limited power based on bestowal of benefits on followers |
Sovereign leader supported by an aristocratic bureaucracy |
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Type & Importance of Kinship |
Bilateral kinship, with kin relations used differentially in changing size and composition of bands |
Unilineal kinship (patrilineal or matrilineal) may form the basic structure of society |
Unilineal, with some bilateral; descent groups are ranked in status |
State demands suprakinship loyalties; access to power is based on ranked kin groups, either unilineal or bilateral |
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Major Means of Social Integration |
Marriage alliances unite larger groups; bands united by kinship and family; economic interdependence based on reciprocity |
Pantribal sodalities based on kinship, voluntary associations, and/or age-grades |
Integration through loyalty to chief, ranked lineages, and voluntary associations |
State loyalties supersede all lower-level loyalties; integration through commerce and specialization of function |
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Political Succession |
May be hereditary headman, but actual leadership falls to those with special knowledge or abilities |
No formal means of political succession |
Chief's position not directly inherited, but chief must come from a high-ranking lineage |
Direct hereditary succession of sovereign; increasing appointment of bureaucratic functionaries |
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Major Types of Economic Exchange |
Reciprocity (sharing) |
Reciprocity; trade may be more developed than in bands |
Redistribution through chief; reciprocity at lower levels |
Redistribution based on formal tribute and/or taxation; markets and trade |
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Social Stratification |
Egalitarian |
Egalitarian |
Rank (individual and lineage) |
Classes (minimally of rulers and ruled) |
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UNCENTRALIZED |
CENTRALIZED |
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Band |
Tribe |
Chiefdom |
State |
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Ownership of Property |
Little or no sense of personal ownership |
Communal (lineage or clan) ownership of agricultural lands and cattle |
Land Communally owned by lineage, but strong sense of personal ownership of titles, names, privileges, ritual artifacts, etc. |
Private and state ownership increases at the expense of communal ownership |
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Law & Legitimate Control of Force |
No formal laws or punishments; right to use force is communal |
No formal laws or punishments; right to use force belongs to lineage, clan or association |
May be informal laws and specified punishments for breaking taboos; chief has limited access to physical coercion |
Formal laws and punishments; state holds all legitimage access to use of physical force |
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Religion |
No religious priesthood or full-time specialists; shamanistic |
Shamanistic; strong emphasis on initiation rites and other rites of passage that unite lineages |
Inchoate formal priesthood, hierarchical, ancestor-based religion |
Full-time priesthood provides sacral legitimization of state. |
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Recent and Contemporary Examples |
!Kung San (Africa), Pygmies (Africa), Eskimo (N.America), Shoshone (US) |
Kpelle (W.Africa), Yanomamo (S.America), Nuer (Sudan), Cheyenne (US) |
Precolonial Hawaii, Kwakiutl (Canada), Tikopia (Polynesia), Dagurs (Mongolia) |
Ankole (Uganda), Jimma (Ethiopia), Kachari (India), Volta (Africa) |
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Historical & Prehistoric Examples |
Virtually all Paleolithic societies |
Iroquois (US), Oaxaca Valley, Mexico, 1500-1000BC |
Precolonial Ashante, Benin, Dahomy (Africa), and Scottish Highlanders |
Precolonial Zulu (Africa), Aztec (Mexico), Inca (Peru), Sumeria (Iraq) |
GENERAL TRENDS IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION
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Aspect of Culture |
Lenski and Lenski (1970) |
Naroll (1970, 1973) |
Erickson (1977) |
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Relationship to Environment |
Greater impact on biophysical environment |
weak to strong control of environment |
greater energy extraction |
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Population |
overall increase; |
rural to urban (dispersed to concentrated |
increase in size and density |
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increase in population and geographic size of individual societies; |
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increae in size and complexity of communities |
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Economy |
technological development |
wealth sharing to wealth hoarding |
increase in energy use |
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development of transportation and communication |
technological specialization and bureaucratization |
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increase in production of goods and services |
exchange goes from reciprocal to redistributive market |
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Socio-political Organization |
increase in structural complexity of individual societies |
generalists to specialists |
technological specialization and bureaucratization |
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increase in size and complexity of communities |
simple to complex organizations |
sociopolitical development and social stratification |
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increase in diversification of individual cultures--both between and within |
wealth sharing to wealth hoarding |
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consensual to authoritative leadership |
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responsible to exploitative elite |
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vengeance war to political war |
Source: David Levinson & Martin J. Malone (1980) Toward Explaining Human Culture. New Haven, CT: HRAF. p. 28. Draws on studies from Lenski and Lenski (1970), Naroll (1970, 1973) and Erickson (1977).
NOTE: General social trends noted as accompanying increasing social complexity. See Gerhard Lenski and Jean Lenski (1970) Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. New York: McGraw Hill; Raoul Naroll (1970) What Have We Learned From Cross-Cultural Surveys? American Anthropologist 72:1227-1288; Raoul Naroll (1973) Holocultural Theory Tests. In Main Currents in Cultural Anthropology. Raoull Naroll and Frada Naroll, eds. pp. 309-353. NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts; Edwin E. Erickson (1977) Cultural Evolution. American Behavioral Scientist 20:669-680.
CONTRASTING CHARACTERISTICS OF SMALL-SCALE
AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES
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SMALL SCALE SOCIETIES |
COMPLEX SOCIETIES |
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small population |
large population |
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sparsely settled |
densely settled |
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isolated |
incorporated into vast networks |
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homogeneous |
heterogeneous |
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simple |
complex |
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equalitarian |
stratified |
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inequality simply organized (kin and role ranking |
inequality complexly organized (class and ethnic ranking) |
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communalistic |
individualistic |
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stable, slow-changing |
fast-changing |
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self-sufficient |
dependent upon other units |
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culture |
subcultures, counter-cultures |
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consensus based conformity |
power-based conformity |
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total visibility of persons |
anonymity |
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total accountability |
situational accountability |
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traditional |
modern |
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personal |
impersonal |
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close social contacts |
distant social contacts |
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primary relationship |
secondary relationships |
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individual relations |
mass or group relations |
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sacred |
secular |
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"authentic" |
"plastic" |
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family and kin |
status and territory |
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nonliterate |
literate |
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generalized roles |
specialized roles |
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uniform distribution of social knowledge |
uneven distribution of social knowledge |
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power diffuse |
power concentrated |
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social integration |
social disorganization |
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personal integration |
personal disorganization |
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intensive interaction |
extensive interaction |
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conformity |
diversity |
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structure |
ambiguity |
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informal controls and sanctions |
formal (bureaucratic) controls and sanctions |