State and Stateless Societies — 2014 Paper I

Approach

• Demand of Question: Distinguish state and stateless societies on the basis of political organization, authority, territory and mechanisms of social control.
• Structuring the Response: Define both forms and present their major differences with suitable anthropological examples.
• Key Dimensions to Cover: Centralized authority, government, law, territory, segmentary lineage, kinship, Nuer, chiefdom/state distinction and political anthropology.

Model Answer

Introduction: Political anthropology distinguishes between state societies, possessing centralized political authority, and stateless societies, where political order is maintained without a centralized government.

Major differences

Stateless societies

Among the Nuer, studied by E.E. Evans-Pritchard, political organization was based largely on segmentary lineage relations.

Order was maintained through:

• kinship;
• customary law;
• mediation;
• balanced opposition.

Thus:

Lineage segmentation → Political organization without centralized state

State societies

States possess:

• centralized authority;
• administrative machinery;
• territorial sovereignty;
• formal judicial institutions;
• legitimate coercive power.

Political membership depends more on territory and citizenship than exclusively on kinship.

Conclusion

The central distinction is:

Stateless society → Dispersed authority embedded in kinship

State society → Centralized and territorially organized authority

However, both possess mechanisms for maintaining order, cooperation and dispute settlement.