The Emergence of the State

Before there was agriculture, people lived in small, loosely organized bands or tribes that hunted for and collected food in the wild. The emergence of horticulture (cultivating plants) and pastoralism (herding animals) led to predecessors of the state, or "prestates," such as chiefdoms or kingdoms. In prestates, food producers, including horticulturalists and pastoralists, were integrated into a hierarchical political and economic structure with a "chief," "lord," or "king," who occupied the highest position. People were ranked under this centralized leader, who could have considerable power and influence, much more than band or tribal leaders.

An interesting example in the archaeological record is Cahokia, a city of mounds (human-made hills that supported various structures) that existed in what is today the central United States. Emerging around C.E. 1050, Cahokia consisted of thousands of people. It had collapsed by 1500, but at its peak around 1150, more people lived at Cahokia (about 20,000 people) than in London. Like chiefdoms, Cahokia was characterized by hierarchy: below the chief, an elite class of subchiefs (who were most likely related to the chief) ruled the leaders of family clans who, in turn, ruled the commoners. Not only were the people ranked by title, but it was also inscribed into the landscape: atop the largest mound-which, at about 100 feet (30 meters) tall, rose above everything and everyone else in the city-the chief administered Cahokia.

Economically, the people who lived in prestates like Cahokia practiced mutual dependence and exchange. But unlike foraging bands or tribal pastoralists or horticulturalists, some people had access to power, prestige, and even resources, such as food, that others did not, primarily because of their rank in the social order. This is where an economic system called redistribution comes into play. In this type of economic exchange, resources (e.g. crops at Cahokia) flowed into one central locale (e.g. the chief at Cahokia), and then they were redistributed again to support, for example, full-time warriors or religious specialists. In some way, the process works like taxes do today, although this modern practice is much more depersonalized. Notably, while resources flowed back out to the masses from the chief, though certainly not in the same form, the act of redistribution often increased the wealth, power, and prestige of the chief and his subordinates. Consequently, chiefs, lords, or kings often had the power to control land and resources in ways that tribal or band leaders did not.

Chiefs, lords, and kings often maintained their political and economic domination through coercion and warfare. In this regard, some chiefdoms or kingdoms were very much like ancient states, which expanded through large-scale conquest. But, unlike chiefdoms or kingdoms, these early states consisted of much larger populations.

Early states-hierarchical political systems characterized by centralized governments more sophisticated than those of prestates-arose primarily around large-scale agriculture and first emerged about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Many of these developed independently of one another in places all over the world: Central America, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. These states had centralized power, that is, a consolidated authority was organized around a ruling bureaucracy rather than just one chief, king, or lord. For example, while Cahokia had a centralized authority-a chief -the Maya civilization of Central America (which collapsed around C.E. 900) had a ruling body of individuals spread throughout the state. Like Rome (also a state), the Maya had bureaucrats who governed outlying towns and cities.

Political centralization was only the beginning, however. Integrating people within a centralized, ruling bureaucracy often included state-sponsored religion, the presence of a highly organized military (for both expansion and defense), mutual dependence (as in bands and tribes), redistribution (as in chiefdoms or kingdoms), and market exchange (the exchange of goods and services through the use of money). In times past, "money" included items such as shells, beads, animal skins, precious metals, and rice. Markets were especially important to the development of states. Indeed, the state depended on market exchange to survive. For example, as people settled, their diets became increasingly limited to a few crops. They were able to produce more food for more people, but the number of available foods remained small if people could not trade for them.