Stateless society

{{About|a community that has no government|a nation lacking a state|Stateless nation|the legal and social concept of not belonging to a recognised state|Statelessness}}

[[File:World in 1000 BCE.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the world in 1000 BCE, color-coded by type of society. At this time, most of the world had not yet developed complex government.

{{legend|#fff|Area of iron working, {{circa}} 1000 BCE|border=red solid 1px}}

{{legend|#fff|Area of bronze working, {{circa}} 1000 BCE|border=pink solid 1px}}

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A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority. Most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power, and they are generally not permanent positions, and social bodies that resolve disputes through predefined rules tend to be small.{{cite book |last = Ellis |first = Stephen |title = The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War |publisher= NYU Press |year= 2001 |isbn= 978-0-8147-2219-0 |page= 198 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fLAWMGqKMb4C&pg=PA198 |via= Google Books}} Different stateless societies feature highly variable economic systems and cultural practices.{{cite book |last = Béteille |first = André |author-link = André Béteille |chapter = Inequality and Equality |editor-last = Ingold |editor-first = Tim |title = Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology |publisher = Taylor & Francis |year = 2002 |isbn = 978-0-415-28604-6 |pages = 1042–1043 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hKzSc02tbaMC&pg=PA1042 |via= Google Books}}

While stateless societies were the norm in human prehistory, few stateless societies exist today; almost the entire global population resides within the jurisdiction of a sovereign state, though in some regions nominal state authorities may be very weak and may wield little or no actual power.

Over the course of history most stateless peoples have become integrated into external state-based societies.{{cite book |last = Faulks |first = Keith |title = Political Sociology: A Critical Introduction |publisher = NYU Press |year = 2000 |isbn = 978-0-8147-2709-6 |page= 23 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_fjCczhvWj0C&pg=PA23 |via= Google Books}}

Some political philosophies, particularly anarchism, regard the state as an unwelcome institution and stateless societies as the ideal, while Marxism considers that in a post-capitalist society, the state would become unnecessary and would wither away.

Prehistoric peoples

In archaeology, cultural anthropology and history, a stateless society denotes a less complex human community without a state, such as a tribe, a clan, a band society or a chiefdom. The main criterion of "complexity" used is the extent to which a division of labor has occurred such that many people are permanently specialized in particular forms of production or other activity, and depend on others for goods and services through trade or sophisticated reciprocal obligations governed by custom and laws. An additional criterion is population size. The bigger the population, the more relationships have to be reckoned with.Francisconi, Michael Joseph. "Political Anthropology." Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by H. James Birx, vol. 4, Sage Reference, 2006, pp. 1868–1872.{{Cite web|title=complex society|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810104640972|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Oxford Reference|language=en}}

Evidence of the earliest known city-states has been found in ancient Mesopotamia around {{BCE|3700}}, suggesting that the history of the state is less than 6,000 years old; thus, for most of the human prehistory the state did not exist.

{{Quotation|For 99.8 percent of human history people lived exclusively in autonomous bands and villages. At the beginning of the Paleolithic [i.e. the Stone Age], the number of these autonomous political units must have been small, but by {{BCE|1000}} it had increased to some 600,000. Then supra-village aggregation began in earnest, and in barely three millennia the autonomous political units of the world dropped from 600,000 to 157.|Robert L. Carneiro, 1978{{cite book |first= Robert L. |last= Carneiro |chapter= Political Expansion as an Expression of the Principle of Competitive Exclusion |page= 219 |editor1-first= Ronald |editor1-last= Cohen |editor2-first= Elman R. |editor2-last= Service |title= Origins of the State: The Anthropology of Political Evolution |location= Philadelphia |publisher= Institute for the Study of Human Issues |year= 1978 |name-list-style= amp}} }}

Generally speaking, the archaeological evidence suggests that the state emerged from stateless communities only when a fairly large population (at least tens of thousands of people) was more or less settled together in a particular territory and practised agriculture. Indeed, one of the typical functions of the state is the defense of territory. Nevertheless, there are exceptions: Lawrence Krader for example describes the case of the Tatar state, a political authority arising among confederations of clans of nomadic or semi-nomadic herdsmen.{{cite book |last= Krader |title= Formation of the State |url= https://archive.org/details/formationofstate00kradrich |url-access= registration |location= Englewood Cliffs, NJ |publisher= Prentice-Hallm |year= 1968 |at= ch. 6}}

Characteristically the state functionaries (royal dynasties, soldiers, scribes, servants, administrators, lawyers, tax collectors, religious authorities etc.) are mainly not self-supporting, but rather materially supported and financed by taxes and tributes contributed by the rest of the working population. This assumes a sufficient level of labor-productivity per capita which at least makes possible a permanent surplus product (principally foodstuffs) appropriated by the state authority to sustain the activities of state functionaries. Such permanent surpluses were generally not produced on a significant scale in smaller tribal or clan societies.{{cite book |editor1-first= Henri J.M. |editor1-last= Claessen |editor2-first= Peter |editor2-last= Skalnik |name-list-style= amp |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sMoLhNQ9KRoC&q=Henri+J.M.+Claessen |title= The Early State |location= The Hague |publisher= Mouton |year= 1978 |via= Google Books|isbn= 978-9027979049 }}

The archaeologist Gregory Possehl has argued that there is no evidence that the relatively sophisticated, urbanized Harappan civilization, which flourished from about {{BCE|2,500 to 1,900}} in the Indus region, featured anything like a centralized state apparatus. No evidence has yet been excavated locally of palaces, temples, a ruling sovereign or royal graves, a centralized administrative bureaucracy keeping records, or a state religion—all of which are elsewhere usually associated with the existence of a state apparatus.{{cite book |first= Gregory L. |last= Possehl |chapter= Sociocultural Complexity Without the State: The Indus civilization |editor1-first= Gary M. |editor1-last= Feinman |editor2-first= Joyce |editor2-last= Marcus |name-list-style= amp |title= Archaic States |location= Santa Fe |publisher= School of American Research Press |year= 1998 |pages= 261–291}} However, there is no recent scholarly consensus agreeing with that perspective, as more recent literature has suggested that there may have been less conspicuous forms of centralisation, as Harappan cities were centred around public ceremonial places and large spaces interpreted as ritual complexes.{{cite book |first= Carla |last= Sinopoli |chapter= Ancient South Asian Cities in their Regions. |editor-first= Norman |editor-last= Yoffee |title= Early cities in comparative perspective. |location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2015 |pages= 319–342}} Additionally, recent interpretations of the Indus Script and Harappan stamps indicate that there was a somewhat centralised system of economic record-keeping.{{cite book |first= Rajesh P.N. |last= Pao |chapter= The Indus Script and Economics. A Role for Indus Seals and Tablets in Rationing and Administration of Labor |editor1-first= Dennys |editor1-last= Frenez |editor2-first= Gregg M. |editor2-last= Jamison |name-list-style= amp |title= Walking with the Unicorn. Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia. |location= Oxford |publisher= Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |year= 2017 |pages= 518–525}} It remains impossible to judge for now as the Harappan civilization's writing system remains undeciphered. One study summarised it as “Many sites have been

excavated that belong to the Indus Valley civilization, but it remains unresolved whether it was a state, a number of kingdoms, or a stateless commonwealth. So few written documents on this early civilization have been preserved that it seems unlikely that this and other questions will ever be answered.” {{cite book |last= Trigger |first= Bruce G. |title= Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study |edition= 2nd |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 2003 |pages= 31–33}}

In the earliest large-scale human settlements of the Stone Age which have been discovered, such as Çatalhöyük and Jericho, no evidence was found of the existence of a state authority. The Çatalhöyük settlement of a farming community (7,300 BCE to {{circa|6,200}} BCE) spanned circa 13 hectares (32 acres) and probably had about 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants.{{cite book |editor-first= Chris |editor-last= Scarre |title= The Human Past |edition= 2nd |publisher= Thames & Hudson |year= 2009 |page= 222}}

Modern state-based societies regularly pushed out stateless indigenous populations as their settlements expanded,{{cite book |last= Richards |first= John F. |title= The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World |publisher= University of California Press |year= 2004 |isbn= 978-0-520-24678-2 |pages= 4–5 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=i85noYD9C0EC&pg=PA4 |via= Google Books}} or attempted to make those populations come under the control of a state structure. This was particularly the case on the African continent during European colonisation, where there was much confusion among the colonisers about the best way to govern societies that, prior to European arrival, had been stateless. Tribal societies, at first glance appearing to be chaotic to the Europeans, often had well-organised societal structures that were based on multiple undefined cultural factors – including the ownership of cattle and arable land, patrilineal descent structures, honour gained from success in conflict etc.{{cite journal |last= Tosh |first= John |title= Colonial Chiefs in a Stateless Society: A Case-Study from Northern Uganda |year= 1973 |journal= The Journal of African History |volume= 14 |issue= 3 |pages= 473–490 |publisher= Cambridge University Press|doi= 10.1017/S0021853700012834 |s2cid= 163037517 }}

Uncontacted peoples may be considered remnants of prehistoric stateless societies. To varying extents, they may be unaware of and unaffected by the states that have nominal authority over their territory.

As a political ideal

Some political philosophies regard the state as an undesirable institution, and thus advocate the formation of stateless societies.

A central tenet of anarchism is the advocacy of society without states.{{cite book |chapter = Anarchism |title = The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year = 2005 |page = 14 |quote = Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable.}}{{cite book |last = Sheehan |first = Sean |title = Anarchism |location = London |publisher = Reaktion Books |year = 2004 |page = 85}} The type of society envisaged varies significantly between different anarchist schools of thought, ranging from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.{{cite book |last = Slevin |first = Carl |chapter = Anarchism |title = The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |url = https://archive.org/details/oxfordconcisedic00iain |url-access = registration |editor1-first = Iain |editor1-last = McLean |editor2-first = Alistair |editor2-last = McMillan |name-list-style = amp |publisher = Oxford University Press |year = 2003|isbn = 978-0-19-280276-7 }} Anarcho-capitalism opposes the state while supporting private institutions.{{Cite web |last =Morriss |first =Andrew P. |date =2008-08-15 |title =Anarcho-Capitalism |url =https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/anarcho-capitalism |access-date =2022-08-21 |website =Libertarianism.org |quote =Although most anarchists oppose all large institutions, public or private, anarcho-capitalists oppose the state, but not private actors with significant market power.}}

In Marxism, Marx's theory of the state, as elaborated by Engels and by Lenin, considers that in a post-capitalist society the state, an undesirable institution, would prove unnecessary and would wither away.{{cite book |url = http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm |first = Frederick |last = Engels |title = Socialism: Utopian and Scientific |year = 1880 |chapter = Part III: Historical Materialism |quote = State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The State is not "abolished". It dies out...Socialized production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible. The development of production makes the existence of different classes of society thenceforth an anachronism. In proportion as anarchy in social production vanishes, the political authority of the State dies out. Man, at last, the master of his own form of social organization, becomes at the same time the lord over Nature, his own master—free. |via = Marx/Engels Internet Archive (marxists.org)}} A related concept is that of stateless communism, a phrase sometimes used to describe Marx's anticipated post-capitalist society.

Social and economic organization

Anthropologists have found that social stratification is not the standard among all societies. John Gowdy writes, "Assumptions about human behaviour that members of market societies believe to be universal, that humans are naturally competitive and acquisitive, and that social stratification is natural, do not apply to many hunter-gatherer peoples."{{cite book |last= Gowdy |first= John |year= 2006 |chapter= Hunter-Gatherers and the Mythology of the Market |editor1-link= Richard Borshay Lee |editor1-first= Richard B. |editor1-last= Lee |editor2-first= Richard H. |editor2-last= Daly |name-list-style= amp |title= The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers |page= 391 |location= New York |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-0-521-60919-7}}

The economies of stateless agricultural societies tend to focus and organize subsistence agriculture at the community level and tend to diversify their production rather than specializing in a particular crop.{{cite book |last1= Chase |first1= Diane Z. |last2= Chase |first2= Arlen F. |name-list-style= amp |title= Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment |publisher= University of Oklahoma Press |year= 2003 |isbn= 978-0-8061-3542-7 |page= 23 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kwxl5jjQ-dUC&pg=PA23 |via= Google Books}}

In many stateless societies, conflicts between families or individuals are resolved by appealing to the community. Each of the sides of the dispute will voice their concerns, and the community, often voicing its will through village elders, will reach a judgment on the situation. Even when there is no legal or coercive authority to enforce these community decisions, people tend to adhere to them, due to a desire to be held in esteem by the community.{{cite book|author=Fleming, Thomas|title=The Politics of Human Nature|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=1993|isbn=978-1-56000-693-0|pages=165–166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saK1sFtSXuEC&pg=PA165}}

References

External links

{{cite web|title=Stateless Society|url=https://www.debatedwisdom.com/articles/stateless-society/|website=DebatedWisdom|publisher=3IVIS GmbH|access-date=29 October 2016}}

Category:Ancient Jericho

Category:Anthropology

Category:Archaeological theory

Category:Çatalhöyük

Category:Political anthropology

Category:Society

Category:Statelessness