List of stateless societies

This is a list of societies that have been described as examples of stateless societies.

There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a state,[1] or to what extent a stateless group must be independent of the de jure or de facto control of states so as to be considered a society by itself.

Historical societies

The following groups have been cited as examples of stateless societies by some commentators.

Society Period Notes Ref.
Essenes 2nd century BCE – 1st century CE Mystic Jewish sect with communal living practices. [2]
Frisian freedom 800–1523 Territory notably not run under the feudal practices normal in Europe at the time. [3]
Taborites 1420–1452 Hussite faction which maintained an independent Tábor. Arguably a prototypical anarcho-communist society. [4]
Republic of Cospaia 1440–1826 Microstate created by historical anomaly, independent of bordering major powers. This territory lacked many state-like apparatuses. [5]
South Carolina Commune 1868–1874 Black-led reconstruction government in South Carolina. Considered a commune by W. E. B. Du Bois. [6]

Indigenous societies

Human society predates the existence of states, meaning that the history of almost any ethnic group would include pre-state organisation. The groups listed below have been identified as examples of stateless societies by various commentators, including discussions relating to anarchism.

Society Provisioning system Homeland Ref.
Aboriginal Australians Various Australia [7]
Imazighen Agricultural Maghreb [7]
Andamanese Hunter-gatherer Andaman Islands [8]
Anga Horticultural Jos Plateau [9]
Anuak Horticultural Anuak Zone, Gambela [7]
Bassa Subsistence agriculture Bassaland [9]
Berom Subsistence agriculture Jos Plateau [9]
Birifor Volta [9]
Bobo Subsistence agriculture Bobo-Dioulasso [9]
Cherokee Agricultural Cherokee Nation [10]
Croatan Subsistence agriculture Croatan Sound [11]
Dan Agricultural Man [9]
Dayak Agricultural Borneo [7]
Dogon Subsistence agriculture Dogon country [9]
Ekoi Horticultural Ekoi land [9]
Gagu Pastoral agriculture [9]
Grebo Grebo land [9]
Hopi Agricultural Hopi Nation [12]
Ibibio Horticultural Akwa Ibom [9]
Idoma Hunter-gatherer Benue [9]
Ifugao Horticultural Ifugao [7]
Igbo Horticultural Igboland [13][9]
Ijaw Horticultural Niger Delta [9]
Inuit Hunter-gatherer Arctic [7]
Kissi Subsistence agriculture Guinea Highlands [9]
Konkomba Horticultural Northern Ghana [7][9]
Kru Fishing Grand Kru County [9]
Kusasi Kasaug Traditional Area [9]
Lugbara Subsistence agriculture West Nile [7]
Mamprusi East Mamprusi [9]
Mano Horticultural Nimba County [9]
Mapuche Pastoral agriculture Araucanía [14]
Maragoli Vihiga County [9]
Mbuti Hunter-gatherer Ituri Rainforest [15]
Niitsitapi Hunter-gatherer Blackfeet Nation [16]
Nubian Agricultural Nubia [17]
Nuer Pastoralism Nuer Zone, Gambela [9]
Pequot Agricultural Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation [18]
Piaroa Subsistence agriculture Orinoco [19]
Puliklah Hunter-gatherer Yurok Indian Reservation [7]
Tallensi Horticultural Tallensi Traditional Area [9]
Plateau Tonga Subsistence agriculture Binga [7]
Quinnipiac Hunter-gatherer Quinnipiac River [20]
Sami Pastoralism Sápmi [7]
San Hunter-gatherer Central Kalahari [21]
Santals Agricultural Jharkhand [7]
Semai Subsistence agriculture Perak [22]
Seminoles Hunter-gatherer Seminole Nation [23]
Shona Subsistence agriculture Mashonaland [9]
Tiv Horticultural Tivland [7][9]
Urhbo Subsistence agriculture Niger Delta [9]
Zomia [24]

See also

References
  1. Cudworth, Erika (2007). The Modern State: Theories and Ideologies. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2176-7.
  2. Kautsky, Karl (1953). Foundations of Christianity. Vol. 3. Translated by Henry F. Mins. ISBN 978-0-902869-93-6.
  3. Gelderloos, Peter (2010). "What about global environmental problems, like climate change?". Anarchy Works. San Francisco: Ardent Press.
  4. Cohn, Norman (1970). The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary millenarians and mystical anarchists of the Middle Ages. London: Paladin. pp. 207–208.
  5. Milani, Giuseppe; Selvi, Giovanna (1996). Tra Rio e Riascolo: piccola storia del territorio libero di Cospaia. Lama di San Giustino: Associazione genitori oggi. p. 18. OCLC 848645655.
  6. W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 449.
  7. Barclay, Harold (1990). People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy. Seattle: Left Bank Books.
  8. John Zerzan, Future Primitive Revisisted (Port Townsend: Feral House, 2012), 13-14.
  9. Mbah, Sam; Igariwey, I.E. (1997). African Anarchism: The History of a Movement. Tucson, Arizona: See Sharp Press. pp. 34–35. Among the stateless societies that existed on the continent were the Igbo, the Birom, Angas, Idoma, Ekoi, Nbembe, the Niger Delta peoples, the Tiv (Nigeria), the Shona (Zimbabwe), Lodogea, the Lowihi, the Bobo, the Dogon, the Konkomba, the Birifor (Burkina Faso, Niger), the Bate, the Kissi, the Dan, the Logoli, the Gagu and Kru peoples, the Mano, Bassa Grebo and Kwanko (Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo), the Tallensi, Mamprusi, Kusaasi (Ghana), the Nuer (Southern Sudan), etc. — numbering today nearly two hundred million individuals in all.
  10. Perdue, Theda (2007). The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books.
  11. "Indian Towns and Buildings of Eastern North Carolina", Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, National Park Service, 2008, Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  12. Eggan, Fred, Social Organization of the Western Pueblos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960)
  13. Emmanuel C. Onyeozili and Obi N. I. Ebbe, “Social Control in Precolonial Igboland of Nigeria”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies (2012)
  14. Zibechi, Raúl (2010). Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements. Oakland: AK Press.
  15. Turnbull, Colin (1968). The Forest People. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  16. Ladner, Kiera (2003). "Governing Within an Ecological Context: Creating an Alternative Understanding of Blackfoot Governance". Studies in Political Economy. 70: 137–150. doi:10.1080/07078552.2003.11827132. S2CID 151545741.
  17. Robert Fernea, “Putting a Stone in the Middle: the Nubians of Northern Africa,” in Graham Kemp and Douglas P. Fry (eds.), Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies around the World, New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 111.
  18. William A. Starna, “Pequots in the Early Seventeenth Century” in ed. Laurence M. Hauptman and James D. Wherry, The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation (Norman and London: University of Oakland Press, 1990), 42.
  19. Graeber, David (2004). Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Chicago: Prickly Paradigms Press. pp. 26–27.
  20. John Menta, The Quinnipiac: Cultural Conflict in Southern New England (New Haven: Yale University, 2003)
  21. Lee, Richard (2003). The Dobe Ju/hoansi. Thomas Learning/Wadsworth.
  22. Robert K. Dentan, The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979
  23. Greg Urban, “The Social Organizations of the Southeast,” in ed. Raymond J. Demallie and Alfonso Ortiz, North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 175-178.
  24. Scott, James (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: University of Yale Press.
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