Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, States

Bands

A small group with less than 100 people.
They move seasonally to explot wild food resources.
Baned members are usually kinsfolk (related).
They have seasonal camps and small more specialised site e.g. butchery sites and site where tools are made.
Most Paleolithic societies were organised in bands.
They were self sufficient groups.
It tends to be an egalitarian society.
If there were leaders it would be based on those that had experience or personal qualities, but they may have been temporary.

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They are larger than bands but are rarely larger than a few thousand people.
They tended to live on cultivated plants and domesticated animals-farmers.
They tended to be settled farmers but sometimes they were pastoralist herders with a mobile economy based on intensive exploiation of livestock.
They were multi-community societies, with individual communities ties together by kinship.
Some may have officials or a seat of government but may lacked the economic base to have power.
They lived in settled agricultural homesteads or villages.
There may have been a disperse settlement pattern with isolated, permanent houses or a nucleated pattern with permanent villages.
There may have been agglomerate structures which are clusters of buildings grouped together.
There may be activity leaders who are recognised as having skill and authority in particular areas.
e.g. Catalhoyuk.

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These can number from 5,000 people up to about 20,000 people.
They tended to be ranking due to differences in social status.
Different lineages are graded on a scale of prestige.
They are governed by a chief.
There tends to be local specialisation in craft products.
It is thought that surpluses in food are given to the chief.
There tends to be a center of power with temples, residents of the chief and places for craft specialists.
There may be a central focus on a permanent ritual and ceremonial center e.g. Stonehenge.
The very rich graves goods then to be in burials of deceased cheifs.
E.g. Iron Age Britain

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The population tends to be over 20,000 people.
The ruler (who could be a King or Queen) has the authority to establish laws and enforce them by a standing army.
Society is stratified into different classes of people.
The functions of the ruler are often sperated from those of the priest.
The society may be viewed as a territory owned by the ruling class.
There may be taxes.
There could be a beurocratic administration of officials to collect revenue and distribute it to the government, army and craft specialists.
Cities tend to play a prominant part with a large population center.
There tends to be a pronounced settlement hierarchy, usually with a capital city as well as subsidary or regional centers as well as local villages.
E.g. Roman Empire, Mesoamerica.

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