as you have probably noticed, we haven't been keeping up with our Guns, Germs, and Steel, thus this post. we were assigned this weekend to read chapter 14 "From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy" and answer questions thoughtfully and thoroughly. like we would answer any different right? just kidding mr.e!
1. Describe the difference between bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.
There is a big difference between all of these living styles, as i'm sure many of you know. Here's what i think...with a little help from Guns, Germs, and Steel: Bands are the tiniest societies known to us, which most of the world used to be. A "regular" band consisted of 5-80 people, mostly relatives by birth of marriage. They share all the land they have, use it equally, rather than steaking places for only certain people to go/live. There is also no economic specialization, only by age or gender: all able-bodied persons forage for food. There is also no upper or lower classmen. Not neccessarily to say they were all equal, but money or job or person didn't determine that; personality, intelligence, strength, and fighting skills did. This is much different to us here in the US and many other countries out there, but there are still people living in bands today. Now, tribes. Tribes is the next step up from a band...go figure. Tribes, instead of having a dozen or so people, has hundreds, and ususally have fixed settlements, which bands didn't really because they were hunter-gatherers and had to go where the food went. Basically, a tribe is a group that shares language and culture. The conflict is high in tribes though, for whoever you have an argument/feud with, they are closely related to you and the two people share many kin. Tribes, like bands, also have an "englitarian" social system, without divided or or ranked classes. Not much of a difference, but still significant. Chiefdoms now are much, much larger than a tribe, ranging from thousands, to tens of thousands of people. This size also created conflict in the exact opposite way a tribe did: hardly anyone in a chiefdom was related to you. 7,500 years ago, with chiefdoms becoming more popular, the people had to learn how to encounter certain people without killing them. To help this, there was a chief in charge of everyone, making laws and using force when needed. With the vast amounts of people in the chiefdom, large amounts of food were needed, which was easiest with food production, but hunting-gathering was still used on occasion. Tribes and chiefdoms are alike in the sense that they both consisted of multiple hereditary lineages living at one site. However, in a chiefdom, the lineages not equally ranked in clans, but they were seperated into hereditary chief and commoner classes. Chiefdoms, with using the recipricol way of giving anf getting, also came up with a new form of economics: taxes. Each farmer was to give the chief some of what they had harvested. Instead of the chief throwing a feast with the food he had recieved, he kept it, taxes. One of the biggest differences between chiefdoms and tribes is chiefdoms differed considerably, in power by size. The larger the chiefdom, the more power they got in cotrolling land and things as such. Last, but certainly not least, states. States rule all of the world's land area except for Antarctica. As we know, states consis of many people, cities, and cultures, which does kind of set us up for failure. With all the different beliefs out there, people are bound to disagree, some more violent than others. Also, wherever the paramount chief location (President of the US i.e) becomes the nations capitol. In states, central control and economica specialization is more extreme, hence the effect on society is terrible when state government collapses. Food produced from cereal farmers, fishermen, herders, and orchard and garden growers, each giving to society what is needed. Slavery is also a much bigger thing in states than any other group. Also, conflict has decreased to a certain extent, with the help of laws, judges, and police. States are definitley the most improved, but really things haven't changed much from a band to a state.
2. What is something interesting - to you - that you take away from this chapter? Explain.
It's truly amazing how things have changed so much from back when most of the world was in bands, yet the same things keep happening. Whether it be conflict or food production or government. Obviously, we have more help now, thanks to technology and things like that that we take for granted everyday, but still, we can't find our way away from conflict, whether it be from not having a gonvernment, or having a government. I know conflict won't ever stop, but maybe if conflict happened with and without government, we could accurately compromise on something else.
