Order Without Police
Every society solves the same problems — decisions, disputes, defense — but not with the same machinery. Elman Service's classic typology arranges the solutions by scale:
| Form | Typical size | Leadership | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band | Dozens | Informal headman; persuasion only | San, Inuit |
| Tribe | Hundreds–thousands | Big man; earned, unstable prestige | New Guinea highlands |
| Chiefdom | Thousands–tens of thousands | Hereditary chief; ranked lineages | Pre-contact Hawai'i |
| State | Tens of thousands + | Bureaucracy; monopoly of force | Inca, Rome, everyone today |
The types are analytic stops on a continuum, not an escalator every society must ride. Plenty of societies stayed bands for millennia — by choice as much as circumstance.
Two Kinds of Getting Your Way
Anthropology splits power (the ability to compel) from authority (the recognized right to decide). A band headman has authority and almost no power: he persuades, arbitrates, and sets an example, but cannot order anyone. A big man builds influence through generosity — financing feasts, brokering marriages — and his position dies with him. A chief inherits office; rank attaches to lineages, and tribute flows upward. A state, in Weber's definition, claims the monopoly on the legitimate use of force within its territory: now compulsion has an address.
Law Before Courts
Stateless societies still have law. Disputes are settled by mediation (the Nuer leopard-skin chief, sacred and unarmed), by structured compensation (blood-wealth payments graded by injury), by song duels (Inuit adversaries mock each other before the camp until one is laughed down), or by the threat of feud — which works precisely because everyone's kin would be dragged in.
The historian's payoff: when written sources say "king," always ask which machinery stood behind the word — a big man with a good year, a ranked chiefdom, or a taxing state. Misreading the type misreads every event that follows.