Essays on Chiefdoms

The origin of the state is a problem that worried (and continues to worry) the whole mankind for few centuries already. During all this time many theories about the origin of the state were invented. Today the most common division is the one suggested by Elman Roger Service, according to which society can be divided into band, tribe, chiefdom and state (Farooq). All these stages have its own characteristics and features and with the development of the society one transformed in another. This paper discusses the main characteristics of the chiefdom society with the comparison of it with the ...

It was one hundred years before the arrival of Columbus when the Great Temple of Mound was started in the southern part of U.S. It is believed that the people that settled at Chucalissa were people from Mississippi. The settlement is believed to have been established in 900 A.D. Following that suspicion, the region of the Mississippi has been under the archeological excavation for a very long time. The Native Americans are believed to have arrived along the Mississippi River in the 10,000-12000 years ago. The first group to arrive in Chucalissa hunted ice age animals for food. ...

Question 1 Compare the strengths and weaknesses of nuclear and extended families. Use information from examples in videos and text, and your own experiences.

In the U.S. older persons often live in residences or communities segregated from the rest of society. Analyze the reasons for this voluntary age-grading, and assess the effect of such a pattern on the larger society. In which kinds of societies is patrilineal descent likely to be found? What is a totem and what is its significance for kinship and descent? Define and contrast moiety, phratry, clan and lineage. Contrast the matrilineal descent system with the patrilineal. Use cross-cultural examples. Give two reasons as to why fraternal polyandry is common in Tibet? Give two examples of both the pros and cons ...

The social structure of a chiefdom is defined as a hierarchical way of living where some people have got great access to wealth, status, and even authority and power. Authority in this case is more limited to the people at the top and they are the ones who determine the way their subjects are going to live. A case in point is when Hawaiian, Tahitians and Trobrianders chiefdoms are considered. The authority of the chief was held in very high esteem and the subjects had no choice but to be under the chief (Kirch 111). Using the Hawaiian chiefdom as an ...

Gender relations have only slightly changed in the midst of the growing complexity of human societies through the centuries. Women remain the primary caregivers and are expected by their society to be responsible for child and infant care whether it be in subsistence economies or in modern day stateshood. However, men’s traditional roles of hunting, construction, political leadership, and even combat have slowly become shared with women as societies become politically and economically more complex.

Subsistence economies

In subsistence economies, males conduct hunting activities while their female counterparts gather wild plants for food. Both of them can together collect shellfish ...

Effects of colonialism on the development of Modern African States

Ramat-Gan (2011) advances that the advent of colonialism in Africa formed the basis of the economic underdevelopment that continues to plague the countries in the modern world. The introduction of colonialism is linked to the many problem associated with the atrocities that the colonial masters implicated on the poor civilian natives of the time. Duke (2010) observes that the colonialism in Africa took different phases and faces. While the British used the direct and indirect rule in some areas, the French adopted the assimilation policy. Whichever the method that the colonial masters had, one character trait that they shared ...

It is a tragic but all too familiar irony that many modern-day nations might never have existed without colonialism. Such is the case with the central African nation known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the second-largest sovereign nation on the African continent. Between the years 1885 and 1908, the Belgian monarchy headed by King Leopold II, first cousin of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria, undertook colonial rule in a region shaped by the river Congo and part of an ancient tribal kingdom. Financial gain provided the impetus for the Belgians, as it had been for the British, Dutch, Portuguese, ...

The massive pyramids of Giza:

Question 1 options:

Were the only pyramids ever built in ancient Egypt, and likely their construction was so expensive that it led to the collapse of the Egyptian state

Were the invention of King Tutenkamen, and contained the wealthiest burials ever excavated by archaeologists

Can trace their architectural development from earlier stepped pyramids of Djoser and earlier mastaba morturary architecture

Were built entirely of mud brick and mortar by Egyptian slaves

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Question 2 (2 points)

Domestication and the transition to agriculture happened as an independent event:

Question 2 options:

simultaneously at the end of the ice age in 5 different parts of the ...

What were the settlements and lifestle of the people living in during the Mesolithic (i.e. Kebarans discussed in Ristvet, Ch 2)? The settlement and lifestyle of the people who lived in the Mesolithic period comprised of people who had a nomadic lifestyle .They were hunter gatherers who had adopted fishing as one of their characteristics. What are the consequences of farming, in terms of both physical health of people and changed social relations, economics, etc? (Diamond 1987 and Ristvet Ch. 2) The adoptability of farming brings forth the improvements of the health of people .farming enables ...