Clan Intelligence and Chiefdoms—Democracy, Autocracy, and the State: A Comparative Study on the Origin Question

Author: Yijianping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: This book revolves around the issues of democracy, despotism, and the origins of the state, examining over a dozen relevant theories proposed by cultural anthropologists since Morgan. It explores numerous specific examples of early social development and evolution in ancient history and ethnology, proposing that all human societies evolved from egalitarian primitive societies through an unequal hierarchical stage into class-based state societies. During the transition from unequal primitive societies to the state, as well as in the early state and mature ancient state stages, non-dictatorial politics, including democracy, were widely found in most regions of the Old and New Worlds, not just in Europe as exemplified by ancient Greece and Rome. The emergence and development of various forms of early social power structures are inextricably linked to social scale and ultimately to geographical environment. The book is rich in data, rigorous in argumentation, clear in perspective, and highly readable, making it an invaluable resource for studying the origins of the state and early human social power structures.