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A band society is the simplest form of human society
Society

A society is a group of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions....
. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family
Extended family

Extended family is a term with several distinct meanings. First, it is used synonymously with Consanguinity. Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family, it is used to refer to kindred who does not belong to the conjugal family....
 or clan
Clan

A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor....
. Bands are often egalitarian and have very informal leadership; the older members of the band generally are looked to for guidance and advice and decisions are often made on a consensus basis, but there are no written law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
s and none of the specialised coercive
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
 roles, e.g., police, seen typically in more complex societies.






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A band society is the simplest form of human society
Society

A society is a group of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions....
. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family
Extended family

Extended family is a term with several distinct meanings. First, it is used synonymously with Consanguinity. Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family, it is used to refer to kindred who does not belong to the conjugal family....
 or clan
Clan

A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor....
. Bands are often egalitarian and have very informal leadership; the older members of the band generally are looked to for guidance and advice and decisions are often made on a consensus basis, but there are no written law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
s and none of the specialised coercive
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
 roles, e.g., police, seen typically in more complex societies. Bands' customs
Convention (norm)

A convention is a set of agreement, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norm , norm or criterion, often taking the form of a Custom ....
 are almost always transmitted orally
Oral tradition

Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants....
. Formal social institutions are few or non-existent. Religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
 is generally based on family tradition, individual experience, or counsel from a shaman. All known band societies hunt and gather
Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
 to obtain their food. (See Subsistence.)

In his 1972 study, The Notion of the Tribe, Morton Fried
Morton Fried

Morton Herbert Fried , was a distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York City from 1950 until his death in 1986, and a prominent anthropologist of the twentieth century....
 defined bands as small, mobile, and fluid social formations with weak leadership
Leadership

Leadership is one of the most salient aspects of the organizational context. However, defining leadership has been challenging. The following sections discuss several important aspects of leadership including a description of what leadership is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leadership....
 that do not generate surpluses, pay no tax
Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon an individual or Legal person by a state or the functional equivalent of a state.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entity....
es and support no standing army
Army

An army , in the broadest sense, is the land-based armed forces of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as an air force....
.

Bands are distinguished from tribe
Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups ....
s in that tribes are generally larger, consisting of many families. Tribes have more social institutions, such as a chief
Tribal chief

A traditional tribal chief is the leadership of a tribe, or the head of a tribal form of self-government.The notion of a "tribal chief" is rather vague and arbitrary; neither chief nor tribe is clearly defined, so in many cases other designations are used for the same institution, such as petty ruler or even headman ....
, big man
Big man (anthropology)

A big man, within the context of anthropology, refers to a highly influential individual in a tribe, especially in Melanesia and Polynesia. Such person has no formal authority , but maintains recognition through skilled persuasion and wisdom....
, or elders
Elder (administrative title)

The term Elder is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority. This usage is usually derived from the notion that the oldest members of a group are the wisest and thus most qualified to rule, provide council or some other form of leadership....
. Tribes are also more permanent than bands; a band can cease to exist if only a small group walks out. Many tribes are in fact sub-divided into bands; in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, some tribes are made up of official bands that live in specific locations.

With the spread of the modern nation-state
Nation-state

The nation-state is a certain form of state that derives its legitimacy from serving as a Sovereignty entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit....
 to all corners of the globe, there are very few true band societies left. Some historic examples include the Shoshone
Shoshone

The Shoshone are a Native Americans in the United States in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
 of the Great Basin
Great Basin

The Great Basin is a large, arid region of the western United States. Its boundaries depend on how it is defined. Its most common definition is the contiguous drainage basin, roughly between the Wasatch Mountains, in Utah and the Sierra Nevada , that has no natural outlet to the sea....
, the Bushmen
Bushmen

The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, Kung, or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola....
 of southern Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, the pygmies (Mbuti
Mbuti

The Bambuti people, or Mbuti as they are collectively called, are one of several Indigenous peoples of Africa hunter-gatherer groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo region of Africa....
) of the Ituri Rainforest in Africa and some groups of Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands and their descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population....
.

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    Chiefdom

    A chiefdom is a type of complex society of varying degrees of centralization that is led by an individual known as a Tribal chief.In anthropology, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band society, and less complex tha...
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