Rank Society

Rank Societies Most societies with social ranking practice agriculture or herding, but not all agricultural or pastoral societies are ranked.

Rank Societies Ranking is characterized by social groups with unequal access to prestige or status but not significantly unequal access to economic resources or power.

Rank Societies Unequal access to prestige is often reflected in the position of chief, a rank to which only some members of a specified group in the society can succeed.

Rank Society In rank societies, the position of chief is at least partly hereditary. Usually the eldest son succeeded to the position of the chief, and different kinship groups were differentially ranked according to their genealogical distance from the chiefly line.

Rank Society In rank societies, chiefs are often treated with deference by people of lower rank. For example, among the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia, people of lower rank must keep their heads lower than a person of higher rank, so when a chief is standing, the commoners must bend low. When commoners have to walk past a chief who happens to be sitting, he may rise and they will bend. If the chief choose to remain seated, they must crawl.

Rank Society While there is no question that chiefs in a rank society enjoy special prestige, there is some controversy over whether they really do not also have material advantages. Chiefs may sometimes look as if they are substantially richer than commoners, for they may receive many gifts and have larger storehouse.

Rank Society In some instances, the chief may even be called the “owner” of the land. However, Marshall Sahlins maintains that the chief’s storehouse only house temporary accumulations for feasts or other redistributions.

Rank Society Although the chief may be designated the “owner” of the land, others have the right to use the land. Furthermore, Sahlins suggests that the chief in a rank society lacks power because he usually cannot make people give him gifts or force them to work on communal projects. Often the chief can encourage production only by working furiously on his own cultivation.