Sneath & Green

What was the Mongol-Oirat Confederation?

• A powerful nomadic alliance that dominated the western Mongolian Plateau, Xinjiang, and later the Volga region.

• Originating from western Mongolia, they thrived as a distinct entity from the Eastern Mongols,

Sneath (2007) central argument about the Mongol-Oirat Confederation?

• It was a ‘headless state’ with no o capital, no single sovereign or contiguous territory

• Yet it had codified law, ranked offices, taxation, military conscription, and subject households treated as property

• Statelike power relations exist without a visible centre

Sneaths reversal of conventional thinking

• Standard theory: kinship groups naturally generate leaders.

• Sneath reverses this: elites create lineages as tools for passing down power.

• Clans don't make aristocrats — aristocrats make clans.

What does Sneath show about inequality without a central state?

• Across three centuries without imperial rule, the Mongolian aristocracy persisted

• Local power relations between lords and subjects were self-sustaining

• Inequality is not imposed from above by a recognisable state structure.

Green (2022) central challenge to state theory

• Traditional theory assumes governance benefits only accrue when power is concentrated in a ruling class.

• The Indus Valley disproves this — public goods, urban infrastructure, and standardisation existed before a ruling class.

Archaeological evidence for collective governance in the Indus Valley

• Massive brick walls built sourced outside settlements (requiring coordination)

• Standardised ornaments, pottery, and seals

• stone weights recovered in both urban and rural sites — a single operating system with no elite markings.

Collective action theory

• Public goods require substantial labour and thus collective effort.

• Societies are most likely to produce them when governance is inclusive.