Anthropology › Section H · Political anthropology › Topic H.3
Chiefdoms and states
When farming produces a surplus, someone can store it, distribute it and take a share. Chiefdoms and states grew from that possibility, concentrating economic, religious and military power in formal offices, and inventing ideas that made the resulting inequality seem natural.
In this topic
- From surplus to centralised power
- Chiefdoms: hereditary office and fused power
- Hawaii: chiefs and the sacred
- Asante: power with checks
- States: a new scale of power
- Why states form: integrative and conflict pressures
- Worked example: what can a surplus support?
- The Mexica (Aztec) state
- Ideology and hegemony
- Worked example: chiefdom or state?
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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