SR Q 1 加入GPS的Sample Paper

EARLY SOCIETY EVOLUTION

Though human being has established different types of societies throughout our early history, anthropologists tend to classify them according to the degree to which different groups within a society have unequal access to advantages such as resources, power and prestige. From the simplest to the most complex, tribes, headman and kingdom are theorized.

Tribes

Small scale of hunters and gatherers were grouped together, usually around 200 people, who move periodically to exploit food around. An informal leader will naturally arise to consolidate the congregation. Just because tribes are composed of nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers, their sites are mainly seasonally occupied camps, occasionally with work locations where large animals are killed to make a sacrifice for their religious beliefs and where pottery works are made or other tribe activities are carried out.

Clan members can be evolved to settled farmers, but they may be pastoring with sheep and cattle that is a very different and mobile economy as compared to life in pure agriculture. This may be a natural evolution of a mixed group of hunter-gatherer society.

Headman

The size of the society will grow as time goes by. Formal villages and settlements are typically found in archaeologist excavation evidence. Such a society strongly needs a formal ‘headman’ to represent their clan. The society is no longer mobile but settled, for instance a village called Dutemovah could be seen and made up of a collection of round-wooden housing—a cluster of buildings grouped together found in Latin America, the early farming village and small town of Native Indian. Very often it is the local specialization in pottery products, and surpluses of foodstuffs are seasonally paid as an obligation to the headman. Such headman has got the centre of power, often with temples, practising the clan’s religious belief. The clan varies greatly in size, but the range is between 2000 and 5000 persons.

Kingdom

The ruler (a king or sometimes a queen) has explicit authority to establish laws and enforce him/her to use an army. The society is stratified into different classes. Agriculture workers and the poorer urban residents constitute the lowest class, with handicraft specialists above and the priest with the royal class of the ruler highest still. The functions of the ruler are separated from the priest who traditionally is deemed to practise clan’s religious beliefs.

This is a rather simple social typology. If we want to talk about early societies, we must use concepts and theories to do so. Such a framework is helpful for us to organize our thoughts.