Vývoj představ o klasifikaci předstátních společností
The Development of Ideas About the Classification of Pre-State Societies

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this essay is the development of ideas of socio-political typology of prestate societies. We began by pointing out the anchoring of these typologies in neo-evolutionist conceptions of development, particularly Sahlins and Service’s distinction between general and specific evolution. We then introduced Kalervo Oberg’s conceptions, which are significant in establishing the concept of chiefdom. This is followed by Elman Service’s interpretation of the classical sociopolitical typology, which distinguished between bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states. Service’s typology, which classified societies on the basis of the complexity of their political organization, is contrasted with Morton Fried’s approach, which divided societies in terms of the criterion of social inequality into egalitarian, ranked, stratified, and state. The interpretation of the classifications of forms of sociopolitical organization is concluded by the approach of Allen Johnson and Timothy Earle, who chose the geographical size of a given political unit as the key criterion. We consider this last typology to be the most fruitful, with the advantage of avoiding controversial concepts such as tribe and classifying societies using more logical criteria that better capture the logic of the gradual increase in political complexity.

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