Elman Service’s Four Types of Societies

bands

smallest form of social-political organization, bands are kinship-based groups of hunter-gatherers w/no formal leadership

tribe, ethnic, or indigenous groups

loosely organized group of people acting as a political unit; often comprised of several bands or kinship groups (more egalitarian)

chiefdoms

a centralized political unit composed of several villages (or even tribes) organized under a leader (chief); sedentary, agricultural societies

states

an autonomous regional structure of political, economic, and military rule with a

central government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order and

defend its territory