primitive societies: the emergence of social stratification

chapter 2: primitive societies: the emergence of social stratification

The Primitive Society of Aboriginal Australia, 31

The Transition to the Advanced Primitive Type, 38

Types of Advanced Primitive Societies, 44

Socio-cultural evolution, like organic evolution, has proceeded by differentiation from simple to progressively more complex forms. Contrary to early conceptions in the field, it has not proceeded in a single definable line, but at every level has included a variety of different forms and types.¹ Nevertheless, longer perspectives make it evident that forms apparently equally viable in given stages have not been equal in terms of their potentialities for contributing to further evolutionary developments. Still, the variability of human patterns of action is one of the facts about the human condition.

In this light, there are four interdependent aspects of the theoretical problems facing us.

First, we must use the general conceptual scheme of the social system which underlies all sociological analysis, whatever the size and functional importance of the system of reference to other systems.

Second, we must consider the problems of the society that arise from its being a type of social system more inclusive of controls over action than all others.

Third, we must be concerned with the evolutionary development of societies as wholes and in their principal structural parts. (We are concerned with the sequences of changing structural patterns which characterize societies as social systems in the course of their evolution and with the processes by which the transitions have occurred. We hope to delineate coherent patterns of order in these respects.)

Finally, we must consider variability as a problem distinct from that of evolutionary stage and sequence. That the cultural, physical, biological, psychological, and social environments of societies, as of other social systems, are variable is reason enough to expect that the societies, being interdependent with these environmental factors as well as autonomous, will also vary. Some attempts to specify the variations fount' at different stages of evolution, the reasons for them, and the potentialities for their further development are necessary.

¹ In biological theory, variation is conceived as a factor in evolution operating at every level of development. In overlooking its importance, the early social evolutionists fell short of developing a truly evolutionary perspective.

PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES 25

I divide the evolution of societies (so far) into three stages: primitive, intermediate, and modern. Our neighboring discipline, social anthropology, has studied primitive societies intensively, and many anthropological studies approach primitive societies in comparative and evolutionary terms. I shall lean on these studies in an effort to show (1) what primitive societies are like and (2) how primitive societies begin to evolve into a more advanced social organization. My hypothesis is that social stratification developed in what was previously a mosaic of kinship groups of equivalent prestige, economic resources, authority, and access to the gods. I shall discuss two main types of stratification, one emphasizing religious differentiation, the other political differentiation. Bear in mind that even at this early evolutionary stage, development is not inevitable. Instead of becoming stratified, a primitive society may remain primitive or it may break up into separate segments. Stratification rather than segmentation can occur only if the solidarity of members of the society is sufficient to overcome the centrifugal forces of social differentiation. Somehow the emergence of hierarchy must be legitimated by the culture. And this means that the collective identity of the society had to grow strong enough to withstand the divisive tendencies toward fission that superordination and subordination involve.

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