Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each leadership position: achieved or ascribed?
Groups: Achieved (earned) · Ascribed (born into)
- Big man who financed this year’s feasts
- War leader chosen for last summer’s victories
- Infant chief awaiting regency
- Heir to the throne, third of that name
- Band headman followed for his hunting judgment
- Hawaiian paramount, first-born of the senior line
Hints
- Ask whether the position is earned or inherited.
- Rank arriving at birth marks a structural shift.
Show the answer
Achieved (earned): Big man who financed this year’s feasts, Band headman followed for his hunting judgment, War leader chosen for last summer’s victories
Ascribed (born into): Hawaiian paramount, first-born of the senior line, Infant chief awaiting regency, Heir to the throne, third of that name
Why
The achieved→ascribed shift is the hinge between tribe and chiefdom: when rank starts arriving at birth, inequality has become heritable structure.
Practise Political Organization
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
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