Life Without Chiefs

Article 20

Life Without Chiefs

Are we forever condemned to a world of haves and have-nots, rulers and ruled? Maybe not, argues a noted anthropologist—if we can relearn some ancient lessons.

Marvin Harris

Can humans exist without some people presidents, parliaments, congresses, nated by other forms of exchange, even ruling and others being ruled? To look at cabinets, governors, and mayors—not capitalist ones. For we do carry out a the modern world, you wouldn’t think to mention the police officers, sheriffs, give-and-take among close kin and so. Democratic states may have done marshals, generals, lawyers, bailiffs, friends that is informal, uncalculating, away with emperors and kings, but they judges, district attorneys, court clerks, and imbued with a spirit of generosity. have hardly dispensed with gross ine- patrol cars, paddy wagons, jails, and Teen-agers do not pay cash for their qualities in wealth, rank, and power. penitentiaries that help keep them in meals at home or for the use of the family However, humanity hasn’t always power. How in the world did our ances- car, wives do not bill their husbands for lived this way. For about 98 percent of tors ever manage to leave home without cooking a meal, and friends give each our existence as a species (and for four them? other birthday gifts and Christmas pre- million years before then), our ances- Small populations provide part of the sents. But much of this is marred by the tors lived in small, largely nomadic answer. With 50 people per band or 150 expectation that our generosity will be hunting-and-gathering bands contain- per village, everybody knew everybody acknowledged with expression of ing about 30 to 50 people apiece. It was else intimately. People gave with the ex- thanks. in this social context that human nature pectation of taking and took with the ex- Where reciprocity really prevails in evolved. It has been only about ten pectation of giving. Because chance daily life, etiquette requires that gener- thousand years since people began to played a great role in the capture of ani- osity be taken for granted. As Robert settle down into villages, some of which mals, collection of wild foodstuffs, and Dentan discovered during his field- eventually grew into cities. And it has success of rudimentary forms of agricul- work among the Semai of Central Ma- been only in the last two thousand years ture, the individuals who had the luck of laysia, no one ever says “thank you” for that the majority of people in the world the catch on one day needed a handout the meat received from another hunter. have not lived in hunting-and-gathering on the next. So the best way for them to Having struggled all day to lug the car- societies. This brief period of time is not provide for their inevitable rainy day was cass of a pig home through the jungle nearly sufficient for noticeable evolu- to be generous. As expressed by anthro- heat, the hunter allows his prize to be tion to have taken place. Thus, the few pologist Richard Gould, “The greater the cut up into exactly equal portions, remaining foraging societies are the amount of risk, the greater the extent of which he then gives away to the entire closest analogues we have to the “natu- sharing.” Reciprocity is a small society’s group. Dentan explains that to express ral” state of humanity. bank. gratitude for the portion received indi- To judge from surviving examples of In reciprocal exchange, people do not cates that you are the kind of ungener- hunting-and-gathering bands and vil- specify how much or exactly what they ous person who calculates how much lages, our kind got along quite well for expect to get back or when they expect to you give and take: “In this context, say- the greater part of prehistory without so get it. That would besmirch the quality of ing ‘thank you’ is very rude, for it sug- much as a paramount chief. In fact, for that transaction and make it similar to gests, first, that one has calculated the tens of thousands of years, life went on mere barter or to buying and selling. The amount of a gift and, second, that one without kings, queens, prime ministers, distinction lingers on in societies domi- did not expect the donor to be so gener-

1 ANNUAL EDITIONS ous.” To call attention to one’s generos- lowing morning a different combination all headmen. Each one of us is headman ity is to indicate that others are in debt of foragers moves out of camp, and when over himself.” to you and that you expect them to re- they return late in the day, the distribu- Headmanship can be a frustrating and pay you. It is repugnant to egalitarian tion of foodstuffs is repeated.” irksome job. Among Indian groups such peoples even to suggest that they have In small, prestate societies, it was in as the Mehinacu of Brazil’s Zingu Na- been treated generously. everybody’s best interest to maintain tional Park, headmen behave something Canadian anthropologist Richard each other’s freedom of access to the nat- like zealous scoutmasters on overnight Lee tells how, through a revealing inci- ural habitat. Suppose a !Kung with a lust cookouts. The first one up in the morn- dent, he learned about this aspect of rec- for power were to get up and tell his ing, the headman tries to rouse his com- iprocity. To please the !Kung, the campmates, “From now on, all this land panions by standing in the middle of the “bushmen” of the Kalahari desert, he and everything on it belongs to me. I’ll village plaza and shouting to them. If decided to buy a large ox and have it let you use it but only with my permis- something needs to be done, it is the slaughtered as a present. After days of sion and on the condition that I get first headman who starts doing it, and it is the searching Bantu agricultural villages choice of anything you capture, collect, headman who works harder than anyone for the largest and fattest ox in the re- or grow.” His campmates, thinking that else. He sets an example not only for gion, he acquired what appeared to be a he had certainly gone crazy, would pack hard work but also for generosity: After perfect specimen. But his friends took up their few belongings, take a long a fishing or hunting expedition, he gives him aside and assured him that he had walk, make a new camp, and resume away more of his catch than anyone else been duped into buying an absolutely their usual life of egalitarian reciprocity. does. In trading with other groups, he worthless animal. “Of course, we will The man who would be king would be must be careful not to keep the best items eat it,” they said, “but it won’t fill us left by himself to exercise a useless sov- for himself. up—we will eat and go home to bed ereignty. In the evening, the headman stands in with stomachs rumbling.” Yet, when the center of the plaza and exhorts his Lee’s ox was slaughtered, it turned out THE HEADMAN: people to be good. He calls upon them to to be covered with a thick layer of fat. LEADERSHIP, NOT POWER control their sexual appetites, work hard Later, his friends explained why they in their gardens, and take frequent baths had said his gift was valueless, even To the extent that political leadership ex- in the river. He tells them not to sleep though they knew better than he what ists at all among band-and-village societ- during the day or bear grudges against lay under the animal’s skin: ies, it is exercised by individuals called each other. “Yes, when a young man kills much headmen. These headmen, however, meat he comes to think of himself as a lack the power to compel others to obey COPING WITH chief or a big man, and he thinks of the their orders. How can a leader be power- FREELOADERS rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We ful and still lead? can’t accept this, we refuse one who The political power of genuine rulers During the reign of reciprocal exchange boasts, for someday his pride will make depends on their ability to expel or exter- and egalitarian headmen, no individual, him kill somebody. So we always speak minate disobedient individuals and family, or group smaller than the band of his meat as worthless. This way we groups. When a headman gives a com- or village itself could control access cool his heart and make him gentle.” mand, however, he has no certain physi- to natural resources. Rivers, lakes, Lee watched small groups of men cal means of punishing those who beaches, oceans, plants and animals, and women returning home every disobey. So, if he wants to stay in “of- the soil and subsoil were all communal evening with the animals and wild fruits fice,” he gives few commands. Among property. and plants that they had killed or col- the Eskimo, for instance, a group will Among the !Kung, a core of people lected. They shared everything equally, follow an outstanding hunter and defer to born in a particular territory say that they even with campmates who had stayed his opinion with respect to choice of “own” the water holes and hunting behind and spent the day sleeping or hunting spots. But in all other matters, rights, but this has no effect on the peo- taking care of their tools and weapons. the leader’s opinion carries no more ple who happen to be visiting and living “Not only do families pool that day’s weight than any other man’s. Similarly, with them at any given time. Since production, but the entire camp—resi- among the !Kung, each band has its rec- !Kung from neighboring bands are re- dents and visitors alike—shares equally ognized leaders, most of whom are lated through marriage, they often visit in the total quantity of food available,” males. These men speak out more than each other for months at a time and have Lee observed. “The evening meal of any others and are listened to with a bit more free use of whatever resources they need one family is made up of portions of food deference. But they have no formal au- without having to ask permission. from each of the other families resident. thority and can only persuade, never Though people from distant bands must There is a constant flow of nuts, berries, command. When Lee asked the !Kung make a request to use another band’s ter- roots, and melons from one family fire- whether they had headmen—meaning ritory, the “owners” seldom refuse them. place to another, until each person has powerful chiefs—they told him, “Of The absence of private possession in received an equitable portion. The fol- course we have headmen! In fact, we are land and other vital resources means that

2 Article 20. Life Without Chiefs a form of communism probably existed Redistribution occurs when people clubhouse in which his male followers among prehistoric hunting and collecting turn over food and other valuables to a could lounge about and guests could be bands and small villages. Perhaps I prestigious figure such as a headman, to entertained and fed. He gave a feast at should emphasize that this did not rule be pooled, divided into separate por- the consecration of the clubhouse; if this out the existence of private property. tions, and given out again. The primor- was a success, the circle of people will- People in simple band-and-village soci- dial form of redistribution was probably ing to work for him grew larger still, and eties own personal effects such as weap- keyed to seasonal hunts and harvests, he began to hear himself spoken of as a ons, clothing, containers, ornaments, and when more food than usual became mumi. Larger and larger feasts meant tools. But why should anyone want to available. that the mumi’s demands on his support- steal such objects? People who have a True to their calling, headmen-redis- ers became more irksome. Although they bush camp and move about a lot have no tributors not only work harder than their grumbled about how hard they had to use for extra possessions. And since the followers but also give more generously work, they remained loyal as long as group is small enough that everybody and reserve smaller and less desirable their mumi continued to maintain and in- knows everybody else, stolen items can- portions for themselves than for anyone crease his renown as a “great provider.” not be used anonymously. If you want else. Initially, therefore, redistribution Finally the time came for the new something, better to ask for it openly, strictly reinforced the political and eco- mumi to challenge the older ones. He did since by the rules of reciprocity such re- nomic equality associated with recipro- this at a muminai feast, where both sides quests cannot be denied. cal exchange. The redistributors were kept a tally of all the pigs, coconut pies, compensated purely with admiration I don’t want to create the impression and sago-almond puddings given away and in proportion to their success in giv- that life within egalitarian band-and- by the host mumi and his followers to the ing bigger feasts, in personally contrib- village societies unfolded entirely guest mumi and his followers. If the uting more than anybody else, and in without disputes over possessions. As guests could not reciprocate with a feast asking little or nothing for their effort, in every social group, nonconformists as lavish as that of the challengers, their all of which initially seemed an inno- and malcontents tried to use the system mumi suffered a great social humiliation, cent extension of the basic principle of for their own advantage. Inevitably and his fall from mumihood was imme- reciprocity. there were freeloaders, individuals who diate. consistently took more than they gave But how little our ancestors under- At the end of a successful feast, the and lay back in their hammocks while stood what they were getting themselves greatest of mumis still faced a lifetime others did the work. Despite the ab- into! For if it is a good thing to have a of personal toil and dependence on the sence of a criminal justice system, such headman give feasts, why not have sev- moods and inclinations of his followers. behavior eventually was punished. A eral headmen give feasts? Or, better yet, Mumihood did not confer the power to widespread belief among band-and-vil- why not let success in organizing and coerce others into doing one’s bidding, lage peoples attributes death and mis- giving feasts be the measure of one’s le- nor did it elevate one’s standard of liv- fortune to the malevolent conspiracy of gitimacy as a headman? Soon, where ing above anyone else’s. In fact, be- sorcerers. The task of identifying these conditions permit, there are several cause giving things away was the evildoers falls to a group’s shamans, would-be headmen vying with each essence of mumihood, great mumis who remain responsive to public opin- other to hold the most lavish feasts and consumed less meat and other delica- ion during their divinatory trances. redistribute the most food and other cies than ordinary men. Among the Well-liked individuals who enjoy valuables. In this fashion there evolved Kaoka, another Solomon Islands group, strong support from their families need the nemesis that Richard Lee’s !Kung in- there is the saying, “The giver of the not fear the shaman. But quarrelsome, formants had warned about: the youth feast takes the bones and the stale stingy people who do not give as well who wants to be a “big man.” cakes; the meat and the fat go to the oth- as take had better watch out. A classic anthropological study of big ers.” At one great feast attended by men was carried out by Douglas Oliver 1,100 people, the host mumi, whose among the Siuai, a village people who name was Soni, gave away thirty-two FROM HEADMAN live on the South Pacific island of Bou- pigs and a large quantity of sago-al- TO BIG MAN gainville, in the Solomon Islands. In the mond puddings. Soni himself and some Siuai language, big men were known as of his closest followers went hungry. Reciprocity was not the only form of ex- mumis. Every Siuai boy’s highest ambi- “We shall eat Soni’s renown,” they change practiced by egalitarian band- tion was to become a mumi. He began by said. and-village peoples. Our kind long ago getting married, working hard, and re- found other ways to give and take. stricting his own consumption of meats FROM BIG MAN TO CHIEF Among them the form of exchange and coconuts. His wife and parents, im- known as redistribution played a crucial pressed with the seriousness of his inten- The slide (or ascent?) toward social strat- role in creating distinctions of rank dur- tions, vowed to help him prepare for his ification gained momentum wherever ing the evolution of chiefdoms and first feast. Soon his circle of supporters extra food produced by the inspired dili- states. widened and he began to construct a gence of redistributors could be stored

3 ANNUAL EDITIONS while awaiting muminai feasts, pot- more yams than anyone else. Chiefs which they built temples and big houses latches, and other occasions of redistri- placed their yam supply on display racks for their chief. Working in teams and us- bution. The more concentrated and specifically built for this purpose next to ing nothing but levers and rollers, they abundant the harvest and the less perish- their houses. Commoners did the same, moved rocks weighing fifty tons or more able the crop, the greater its potential for but a chief’s yam racks towered over all and set them in precise lines and perfect endowing the big man with power. the others. circles, forming sacred precincts for Though others would possess some This same pattern recurs, with minor communal rituals marking the change of stored-up foods of their own, the redis- variations, on several continents. Strik- seasons. tributor’s stores would be the largest. In ing parallels were seen, for example, If this seems remarkable, remember times of scarcity, people would come to twelve thousand miles away from the that donated labor created the megalithic him, expecting to be fed; in return, he Trobrianders, among chiefdoms that alignments of Stonehenge and Carnac, could call upon those who had special flourished throughout the southeastern put up the great statues on Easter Island, skills to make cloth, pots, canoes, or a region of the United States—specifically shaped the huge stone heads of the fine house for his own use. Eventually, among the Cherokee, former inhabitants Olmec in Vera Cruz, dotted Polynesia the redistributor no longer needed to of Tennessee, as described by the eigh- with ritual precincts set on great stone work in the fields to gain and surpass teenth-century naturalist William Bar- platforms, and filled the Ohio, Tennes- big-man status. Management of the har- tram. see, and Mississippi valleys with hun- vest surpluses, a portion of which contin- At the center of the principal Chero- dreds of large mounds. Not until it was ued to be given to him for use in kee settlements stood a large circular too late did people realize that their beau- communal feasts and other communal house where a council of chiefs dis- tiful chiefs were about to keep the meat projects (such as trading expeditions and cussed issues involving their villages and fat for themselves while giving noth- warfare), was sufficient to validate his and where redistributive feasts were ing but bones and stale cakes to their fol- status. And, increasingly, people viewed held. The council of chiefs had a para- lowers. this status as an office, a sacred trust, mount who was the principal figure in passed on from one generation to the the Cherokee redistributive network. At IN THE END next according to the rules of hereditary the harvest time a large crib, identified as succession. His dominion was no longer the “chief’s granary,” was erected in As we know, chiefdoms would eventu- a small, autonomous village but a large each field. “To this,” explained Bartram, ally evolve into states, states into em- political community. The big man had “each family carries and deposits a cer- pires. From peaceful origins, humans become a chief. tain quantity according to his ability or created and mounted a wild beast that ate Returning to the South Pacific and the inclination, or none at all if he so continents. Now that beast has taken us Trobriand Islands, one can catch a chooses.” The chief’s granaries func- to the brink of global annihilation. glimpse of how these pieces of encroach- tioned as a public treasury in case of crop Will nature’s experiment with mind ing stratification fell into place. The Tro- failure, a source of food for strangers or and culture end in nuclear war? No one brianders had hereditary chiefs who held travelers, and as military store. Although knows the answer. But I believe it is es- sway over more than a dozen villages every citizen enjoyed free access to the sential that we understand our past be- containing several thousand people. store, commoners had to acknowledge fore we can create the best possible Only chiefs could wear certain shell or- that it really belonged to the supreme future. Once we are clear about the roots naments as the insignia of high rank, and chief, who had “an exclusive right and of human nature, for example, we can re- it was forbidden for commoners to stand ability… to distribute comfort and bless- fute, once and for all, the notion that it is or sit in a position that put a chief’s head ings to the necessitous.” a biological imperative for our kind to at a lower elevation. British anthropolo- Supported by voluntary donations, form hierarchical groups. An observer gist Bronislaw Malinowski tells of see- chiefs could now enjoy lifestyles that set viewing human life shortly after cultural ing all the people present in the village of them increasingly apart from their fol- takeoff would easily have concluded that Bwoytalu drop from their verandas “as if lowers. They could build bigger and our species was destined to be irredeem- blown down by a hurricane” at the sound finer houses for themselves, eat and ably egalitarian except for distinctions of of a drawn-out cry warning that an im- dress more sumptuously, and enjoy the sex and age. That someday the world portant chief was approaching. sexual favors and personal services of would be divided into aristocrats and Yams were the Trobrianders’ staff of several wives. Despite these harbingers, commoners, masters and slaves, billion- life; the chiefs validated their status by people in chiefdoms voluntarily invested aires and homeless beggars would have storing and redistributing copious quan- unprecedented amounts of labor on be- seemed wholly contrary to human nature tities of them acquired through donations half of communal projects. They dug as evidenced in the affairs of every hu- from their brothers-in-law at harvest moats, threw up defensive earthen em- man society then on Earth. time. Similar “gifts” were received by bankments, and erected great log pali- Of course, we can no more reverse the husbands who were commoners, but sades around their villages. They heaped course of thousands of years of cultural chiefs were polygymous and, having as up small mountains of rubble and soil to evolution than our egalitarian ancestors many as a dozen wives, received many form platforms and mounds on top of could have designed and built the space

4 Article 20. Life Without Chiefs shuttle. Yet, in striving for the preserva- there are superior and inferior races and ciety, but our very survival as a species tion of mind and culture on Earth, it is vi- that the hierarchical divisions within and may depend on it. tal that we recognize the significance of between societies are the consequences cultural takeoff and the great difference of natural selection rather than of a long between biological and cultural evolu- process of cultural evolution. We must Marvin Harris is a graduate research professor tion. We must rid ourselves of the notion struggle to gain control over cultural se- of anthropology at the University of Florida and chair of the general anthropology division that we are an innately aggressive spe- lection through objective studies of the of the American Anthropological Association. cies for whom war is inevitable. We human condition and the recurrent pro- His seventeen books include Cows, Pigs, Wars must reject as unscientific claims that cess of history. Not only a more just so- and Witches and Cannibals and Kings.