chiefdom

chiefdom, in anthropology, a notional form of sociopolitical organization in which political and economic power is exercised by a single person (or group of persons) over many communities. The term was given this technical meaning by scholars who espoused cultural evolution, a theory that was popular during the late 19th and early 20th century but which has since been discredited. The theory suggested that cultures evolve through a continuum based on economic and political organization, beginning with the most “primitive” form, the band, and developing through the stages of tribe and chiefdom before arriving at the final form, the state. Under this rubric, societies were deemed chiefdoms if they exhibited a centralization of power and authority at the expense of local and autonomous groupings. Political authority in chiefdoms, such as those said to be found in western Africa or Polynesia, was seen as inseparable from economic power, including the right by rulers to exact tribute and taxation. A principal economic activity of the heads of chiefdoms was said to be the stimulation of the production of surpluses, which they would then redistribute among their subjects via feasts and other events. The technical definition of the term chiefdom has frequently been overlooked due to early anthropologists’ indiscriminate use of the term chief to describe the leaders of not only chiefdoms but also tribes and bands.