Lecture 28: Early Power Structures
¿ erce and relentless war leaders. They laid waste to the countryside and
their clubhouses were lined with the skulls of people they had slain” (Harris,
Cannibals and Kings, p. 106). As this suggests, the move from “power from
below” to “power from above” could occur very swiftly.A widely used model of authority at regional scales is that of the “chief.”
Chiefs normally rule over local leaders and may have little direct contact with
most of their “subjects.” Their power is often based on high lineage, and they
may achieve god-like status. Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski
once witnessed “all the people present in the village of Bwoytalu [in the
Trobriand Islands] drop from their verandas as if blown down by a hurricane
at the sound of a drawn-out cry announcing the arrival of an important
chief” (Harris, Cannibals and Kings, p. 375). Archaeologists suspect the
presence of chiefs when they ¿ nd large structures such as pyramids or
earthen mounds that required control over not just single villages but over
hundreds or thousands of workers. These early forms of power rested
largely (though not exclusively) on support from below, so they were too
volatile to provide the basis for durable tribute-taking states. Loss of support
or defeat in war led too quickly to loss of power. How was it possible to
construct more durable power structures? That question leads us into the “era
of Agrarian civilizations.” ŶChristian, Maps of Time, chap. 9.
Fagan, People of the Earth, chaps. 14, 15.Harris, “The Origin of Pristine States” (in Cannibals and Kings).
Johnson and Earle, The Evolution of Human Societies.Essential ReadingSupplementary Reading