Human society predates the existence of states, meaning that the history of almost any ethnic group would include pre-state organisation. The groups listed below have been identified as examples of stateless societies by various commentators, including discussions relating to anarchism.
| class="wikitable sortable"
!scope="col"|Society
!scope="col"|Provisioning system
!scope="col"|Homeland
!scope="col"|Ref. |
| Aboriginal Australians
|Various
|Australia
|[{{Cite book|title=People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy|last=Barclay|first=Harold|publisher=Left Bank Books|year=1990|location=Seattle}}] |
| Imazighen
|Agricultural
|Maghreb
| |
| Andamanese
|Hunter-gatherer
|Andaman Islands
|[John Zerzan, Future Primitive Revisisted (Port Townsend: Feral House, 2012), 13-14.] |
| Anga
|Horticultural
|Jos Plateau
| |
| Anuak
|Horticultural
|Anuak Zone, Gambela
| |
| Bassa
|Subsistence agriculture
|Bassaland
| |
| Berom
|Subsistence agriculture
|Jos Plateau
| |
| Birifor
|
|Volta
| |
| Bobo
|Subsistence agriculture
|Bobo-Dioulasso
| |
| Croatan
|Subsistence agriculture
|Croatan Sound
|["Indian Towns and Buildings of Eastern North Carolina", Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, National Park Service, 2008, Retrieved 24 April 2010.] |
| Dan
|Agricultural
|Man
| |
| Dayak
|Agricultural
|Borneo
| |
| Dogon
|Subsistence agriculture
|Dogon country
| |
| Ekoi
|Horticultural
|Ekoi land
| |
| Gagu
|Pastoral agriculture
|
| |
| Grebo
|
|Grebo land
| |
| Hopi
|Agricultural
|Hopi Nation
|[Eggan, Fred, Social Organization of the Western Pueblos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960)] |
| Ibibio
|Horticultural
|Akwa Ibom
| |
| Idoma
|Hunter-gatherer
|Benue
| |
| Ifugao
|Horticultural
|Ifugao
| |
| Igbo
|Horticultural
|Igboland
|[Emmanuel C. Onyeozili and Obi N. I. Ebbe, “Social Control in Precolonial Igboland of Nigeria”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies (2012)][{{Cite book|title=African Anarchism: The History of a Movement|last1=Mbah|first1=Sam|author-link1=Sam Mbah|last2=Igariwey|first2=I.E.|year=1997|location=Tucson, Arizona|publisher=See Sharp Press|quote=Among the stateless societies that existed on the continent were the Igbo, the Birom, Angas, Idoma, Ekoi, Nbembe, the Niger Delta peoples, the Tiv (Nigeria), the Shona (Zimbabwe), Lodogea, the Lowihi, the Bobo, the Dogon, the Konkomba, the Birifor (Burkina Faso, Niger), the Bate, the Kissi, the Dan, the Logoli, the Gagu and Kru peoples, the Mano, Bassa Grebo and Kwanko (Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo), the Tallensi, Mamprusi, Kusaasi (Ghana), the Nuer (Southern Sudan), etc. — numbering today nearly two hundred million individuals in all.|pages=34–35}}] |
| Ijaw
|Horticultural
|Niger Delta
| |
| Inuit
|Hunter-gatherer
|Arctic
| |
| Kissi
|Subsistence agriculture
|Guinea Highlands
| |
| Konkomba
|Horticultural
|Northern Ghana
| |
| Kru
|Fishing
|Grand Kru County
| |
| Kusasi
|
|Kasaug Traditional Area
| |
| Lugbara
|Subsistence agriculture
|West Nile
| |
| Mamprusi
|
|East Mamprusi
| |
| Mano
|Horticultural
|Nimba County
| |
| Mapuche
|Pastoral agriculture
|Araucanía
|[{{Cite book|title=Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements|last=Zibechi|first=Raúl|publisher=AK Press|year=2010|location=Oakland}}] |
| Maragoli
|
|Vihiga County
| |
| Mbuti
|Hunter-gatherer
|Ituri Rainforest
|[{{Cite book|title=The Forest People|last=Turnbull|first=Colin|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1968|location=New York}}] |
| Niitsitapi
|Hunter-gatherer
|Blackfeet Nation
|[{{Cite journal|last=Ladner|first=Kiera|date=2003|title=Governing Within an Ecological Context: Creating an Alternative Understanding of Blackfoot Governance|journal=Studies in Political Economy|volume=70|pages=137–150|doi=10.1080/07078552.2003.11827132|s2cid=151545741}}] |
| Nubian
|Agricultural
|Nubia
|[Robert Fernea, “Putting a Stone in the Middle: the Nubians of Northern Africa,” in Graham Kemp and Douglas P. Fry (eds.), Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies around the World, New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 111.] |
| Nuer
|Pastoralism
|Nuer Zone, Gambela
| |
| Pequot
| Agricultural
|Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation
|[William A. Starna, “Pequots in the Early Seventeenth Century” in ed. Laurence M. Hauptman and James D. Wherry, The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation (Norman and London: University of Oakland Press, 1990), 42.] |
| Piaroa
|Subsistence agriculture
|Orinoco
|[{{Cite book|title=Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology|last=Graeber|first=David|publisher=Prickly Paradigms Press|year=2004|location=Chicago|pages=26–27}}] |
| Puliklah
|Hunter-gatherer
|Yurok Indian Reservation
| |
| Tallensi
|Horticultural
|Tallensi Traditional Area
| |
| Plateau Tonga
|Subsistence agriculture
|Binga
| |
| Quinnipiac
|Hunter-gatherer
|Quinnipiac River
|[John Menta, The Quinnipiac: Cultural Conflict in Southern New England (New Haven: Yale University, 2003)] |
| Sami
|Pastoralism
|Sápmi
| |
| San
|Hunter-gatherer
|Central Kalahari
|[{{Cite book|title=The Dobe Ju/hoansi|last=Lee|first=Richard|publisher=Thomas Learning/Wadsworth|year=2003}}] |
| Santals
|Agricultural
|Jharkhand
| |
| Semai
|Subsistence agriculture
|Perak
|[Robert K. Dentan, The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979] |
| Seminoles
|Hunter-gatherer
|Seminole Nation
|[Greg Urban, “The Social Organizations of the Southeast,” in ed. Raymond J. Demallie and Alfonso Ortiz, North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 175-178.] |
| Shona
|Subsistence agriculture
|Mashonaland
| |
| Tiv
|Horticultural
|Tivland
| |
| Urhbo
|Subsistence agriculture
|Niger Delta
| |
| Zomia
|
|
|[{{Cite book|title=The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia|last=Scott|first=James|publisher=University of Yale Press|year=2009|location=New Haven}}] |