How Chiefs Came to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory

by Timothy Earle

Book Overview

By studying chiefdoms--kin-based societies in which a person's place in a kinship system determines his or her social status and political position--this book addresses several fundamental questions concerning the nature of political power and the evolution of sociopolitical complexity. In a chiefdom, the highest-status male (first son by the first wife) holds both authority and special access to economic, military, and ideological power, and others...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804728569
• ISBN13: 9780804728560
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"