Abstract
This chapter discusses the evolution of sociopolitical organizations. Evolution is understood here as structural change. The chapter consists of three parts. The first part presents the emergence of sociopolitical structures. The second part discusses evolutionary streams with Polynesia and Africa south of the Sahara as examples. In the third part, an explanation is sought for the similarities in the sociopolitical structures of societies found in different times and places.
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Notes
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This view is based on Voget (1975: 862).
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On Cro Magnons: Stringer (2012).
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On the Natufians: Flannery and Marcus (2012: 122 ff.).
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This legitimacy is based upon a kind of reciprocity: their expectation that a king will fulfill his obligations and the people pay taxes. If, however, fertility does not appear, the rain does not fall, or the war has poor results, the people may claim in reciprocity his life, as occurred with farao Pepi II (Morris 2006: 60, Cf. Claessen and van de Velde 1991).
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According to Dmitri Bondarenko (personal communication), the ideas akin to those of Melotti (1977) were rather popular among Soviet historians who developed them independently of Melotti.
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These views have been influenced by the Leiden concept of the Field of Anthropological Study, developed by J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong and P.E. de Josselin de Jong (de Josselin de Jong 1980). This is a conceptual tool to consider different cultures as structural transformations of each other.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Dr. Renée Hagesteijn, who was so kind as to read and critically comment upon an earlier version of this chapter. The comments have greatly improved it. I also wish to thank Dr. Jose Spruijt for her technical assistance.
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Claessen, H.J.M. (2020). The Evolution of Sociopolitical Organizations. In: Bondarenko, D.M., Kowalewski, S.A., Small, D.B. (eds) The Evolution of Social Institutions. World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51437-2_4
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