Elman service

Elman Rogers Service (born May 18, 1915 in Tecumseh , Michigan , † November 14, 1996 ) was an American ethnologist .

Service received his BA from the University of Michigan in 1941 and his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1951 at Columbia University , where he taught from 1949 to 1953. He returned to Michigan and taught there until 1969, spending the remainder of his academic career at the University of California at Santa Barbara . He retired in 1985.

While studying in Michigan, he went to Spain and fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against Franco . During World War II he was in the US Army . At Columbia University he was part of the left Mundial Upheaval Society .

Service researched the ethnology of the Latin American Indians , cultural evolution, and the theory and method of ethnology. He studied cultural evolution in Paraguay as well as cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean . These studies led him to theories about social systems and the rise of the state as a system of political organization.

He was the executive director and treasurer of the American Ethnological Society and a member of the American Anthropological Association .

Theories

Service classified social evolution into four levels, which are also the four levels of political organization: horde , tribe , chieftainship and state .

He also developed the theory of “management benefits”, according to which boss companies develop because it is conducive to centralized management. The leader helps the successors, who become more and more complex over time, from which the whole society benefits. This secures the power of the leader and allows the bureaucratic organization to grow.

Service also provided an integration theory. He believed that earlier civilizations were not stratified by property, but merely by unequal political power, not unequal access to resources. He believed that there was no real conflict between the classes, only power disputes between the political elite. Monuments are created through voluntary support, not through imposing the leader on the population.

Four-stage development model of political organization

The typology of Elman Rogers Service is often used to classify political systems . In the 1960s, based on his research on the socio-cultural evolution of the Latin American Indians, he developed a model for the development of societies in four stages, each of which has its own form of political organization:

Horde society (25 to about 100 members, rarely more)
Tribal society (up to about 5,000 members)
Chiefs (up to around 20,000 members)
State (unlimited members)

In this development scheme, family relationships form an essential basis. This is also the case with other classification schemes of political systems in the policy Ethnology (English political anthropology developed). Service's model is comparatively more widespread than the typology of the American ethnologist Morton Fried , who in the 1960s divided the development of societies into four different levels: equal → ranked → stratified → state.

Today, both models are criticized and relativized as “ evolutionist ”, and there are also ethnic or indigenous societies with political structures (for example in Oceania with big men instead of chiefs ) that cannot be classified within the models. Today kinship is ascribed a subordinate role; it is primarily viewed from the point of view of its usefulness for political action .

The four divisions of Elman Service are still in use, however. They have also been used in archeology to classify very early human societies and to describe their development process.

Horde society

The original and simplest form of society is, according to Elman Service, the "Horde Society " (English band society ). These are small societies with up to 100 members, the horde of hunters who have to migrate seasonally to exploit wild / living food sources. The members of a horde are usually closely related to each other (related or related by marriage ) and live without formal leadership. Management positions are distributed depending on the specific task, so there is no clear economic difference between the members. The political sector is hardly developed at this level of society, the basis of the social processes is the common kinship.

Since these hordes are nomadic , they mostly live in camps that change with the seasons (compare the origin of the word "horde" ), to which there are other places such as slaughter places or transitional camps , but also places where tools are made. Accommodation or shelter options may also be available there. If hordes follow a religion or a cult, Elman Service assumes that it is a shaman cult .

Today's examples of horde societies can be found among the African pygmies and the Bushmen ( San ), the Australian Aborigines and the Eskimos in the northern polar region (see Today's hunter-gatherer peoples ).

Archeology assumes that most Paleolithic societies were organized in hordes, also known as "mobile groups of hunters and gatherers ". In the meantime, fishing has also been accorded important importance; as a natural resource , it may have led to a certain sedentariness and thus to an increase in groups.

Tribal society

Due to complex processes in the course of history, tribes developed from the hordes (bands ) . These are above all larger than the mobile hordes, but hardly more than a few thousand members. Elman Service divides such tribal societies into two basic groups according to their subsistence basis:

sedentary farmers, with cultivated plants as a source of food
nomadic cattle farmers, with domesticated cattle as an intensive food source

The members of a tribe belong to smaller communities , which, however, are related to a larger society. Tribal societies can already have flat hierarchies , but the leaders or offices have no economic basis to assert their power.

Tribes usually live in agricultural homesteads (in scattered settlement forms such as hamlets ) or in small villages ( clustered villages , pueblos ), whereby the settlements are on an equal footing. Religiously, such societies usually have "elders" and already show calendar rituals, and corresponding burial mounds and shrines have also been identified.

Modern examples of such groups are pueblos among North American Indians or the African Nuer and Dinka peoples.

The archeology believes that the early farmers of the Neolithic lived in such societies, these include about the people of Çatalhöyük (today's southern Turkey, from 7400 v. Chr.), Or the first farmers of the Danube civilization (around 4500 v. Chr.).

Chieftainship

Chiefdoms (chiefdom societies) differ from tribal societies mainly through a significant hierarchy in social status reflected the members of society. As a rule lineages (are lineages ) on a prestigious classified based system: The member with the most descent rules the company as a leading head (English chief , German chief ). Now the status and rank of an individual lineage is determined by the proximity of the relationship with this chief. However , this is not yet a division into social classes . Such societies usually have between 5,000 and 20,000 members.

The economic system of such societies is based on a central collection of specially manufactured products, which are then distributed by the tribal chief. As a rule, a chieftainship also has a permanent political and ritual center, which often has temples, residential buildings for the chief and his followers, and particularly specialized craftsmen. This center does not yet have an established bureaucracy, nevertheless there was a clear hierarchy between the settlements.

Modern examples of such societies are the American Northwest Coast cultures and the chiefdoms on the Pacific islands of Hawaii , Tahiti, and Tonga in the 18th century.

Archeology classifies a large part of the early metalworking societies as chiefdoms or tribal estates, including the population of Moundville , Alabama (1000–1500 AD). Typical of chiefdoms are the rich grave goods at the burial of high-ranking group members.

Country

States are the most complex organizational form of societies and, especially in their early form, share many characteristics with the chiefdoms. In contrast to these, the head of a state (e.g. a king or a senate ) has the authority to enact laws and to enforce them through institutionalized violence (e.g. through the army or police ).

State societies are no longer dependent solely on family relationships and are usually divided into different social classes:

Rulers and their relatives
priest
Skilled craftsmen
Agricultural workers, serfs, urban poor

As a rule, religious leadership is separate from political rule. Accordingly, temples exist as a religious center and palaces as a political center. The territory is “owned” by the ruling class and is “leased” for taxes . These taxes are collected by civil servants and then distributed to the government, the army and skilled craftsmen.

States usually show an urban form of settlement in which the cities play a prominent role as population centers and have temples, public buildings and workplaces for the administrative bureaucracy. These urban centers in turn show a clear hierarchy between the capital, regional centers and village communities.

All modern states are organized in this or a more developed form.

Archeology assumes that all ancient cultures lived in states; the best-known examples are the superstates of the Assyrian Empire , the Alexander Empire and the Roman Empire .

Works

Tobati: Paraguayan Town (1954)
A Profile of Primitive Culture (1958)
Evolution and Culture (with Marshall Sahlins ) (1960)
Primitive Social Organization (1962)
Profiles in Ethnology (1963)
The Hunters (1966)
Cultural Evolutionism (1971)
Origins of the State and Civilization (1975)
- Origins of the state and civilization , Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M., 1977.
A Century of Controversy, Ethnological Issues from 1860 to 1960 (1985)

literature

Elman Rogers Service: Primitive Social Organization. An Evolutionary Perspective. Random House, New York 1962, ISBN 0-394-31635-5 (English).
Elman Rogers Service: Origins of the State and Civilization. The Process of Cultural Evolution. Norton, New York 1975, ISBN 0-393-09224-0 (English).

Web links

brief biography, Minnesota State University, E Museum. Archived from the original on August 31, 2010 ; accessed on January 23, 2014 .
Bruce Owen: More Theories of the Emergence of Civilization
Origins of the State: Conflict vs. Integration Theories
Literature by and about Elman Service in the catalog of the German National Library
Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Excursus: Investigation of the Political in Ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 187–202 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; accessed on October 16, 2014 (39 pages; documents for your lecture in the summer semester 2011).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Typology of Political Systems in Ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 188–189 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved on October 16, 2014 : “There are mostly 2 aspects in the foreground of the classification schemes: On the one hand, it is assumed that with increasing development of political systems, the importance of kinship as a structural element decreases and kinship as a determinant of the political becomes obsolete. SERVICE (1962/65) in particular refers to this aspect in its classification. On the other hand, reference is made to the aspect of social equality or inequality and it is assumed that a development from egalitarian socio-political relationships towards the formation of stratified socio-political structures takes place. (cf. e.g. FRIED 1967) [...] Despite this justified criticism of the evolutionist typologies of political systems [...] the typologies established by SERVICE and FRIED are often used. [...] Both typologies relate to the design of the political structure of societies. SERVICE's typology in "band, tribe, chiefdom and state" has become more widespread than FRIED's attempt at classification. "
^ Compare Elman Rogers Service: Origins of the State and Civilization. The Process of Cultural Evolution. Norton, New York 1975, ISBN 0-393-09224-0 (English).
↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Excursus: Investigation of the Political in Ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 187 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Accessed on October 16, 2014 : "Numerous classification schemes of political systems developed in political anthropology (such as the classification into horde, tribe, chiefdom, state) are based on the importance of family relationships as an essential definition criterion" .
↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Typologisation of political systems in ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 188 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved on October 16, 2014 : “Today, the family relationships themselves are given a rather subordinate importance. They are now viewed primarily from the point of view of their usefulness for political action. [...] Implicitly or explicitly, most typologies of political systems, as already indicated, are based on an evolutionist view . (cf. SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986: p.227) [...] It should be noted in this context that these evolutionist typologies of political systems are heavily criticized today. So z. B. pointed out that within these different types of political systems, e.g. B. Tribe, Chiefdom etc., there are large internal differences and there are also companies such as B. those where so-called "big men" appear as leading figures who do not fit into these evolutionist schemes and are therefore often difficult to classify. In addition, there are very different connections of diverse socio-political types in today's modern nations, which can only be inadequately represented by using an evolutionist typology. (Seymour-Smith, 1986, p. 227) " .

personal data
SURNAME	Service, Elman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Service, Elman Rogers (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 18, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tecumseh , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH	November 14, 1996

[Rasuly-Paleczek_2011-189-1] Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Typology of Political Systems in Ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 188–189 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved on October 16, 2014 : “There are mostly 2 aspects in the foreground of the classification schemes: On the one hand, it is assumed that with increasing development of political systems, the importance of kinship as a structural element decreases and kinship as a determinant of the political becomes obsolete. SERVICE (1962/65) in particular refers to this aspect in its classification. On the other hand, reference is made to the aspect of social equality or inequality and it is assumed that a development from egalitarian socio-political relationships towards the formation of stratified socio-political structures takes place. (cf. e.g. FRIED 1967) [...] Despite this justified criticism of the evolutionist typologies of political systems [...] the typologies established by SERVICE and FRIED are often used. [...] Both typologies relate to the design of the political structure of societies. SERVICE's typology in "band, tribe, chiefdom and state" has become more widespread than FRIED's attempt at classification. "

[Service_1975-000-2] Compare Elman Rogers Service: Origins of the State and Civilization. The Process of Cultural Evolution. Norton, New York 1975, ISBN 0-393-09224-0 (English).

[Rasuly-Paleczek_2011-187-3] Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Excursus: Investigation of the Political in Ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 187 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Accessed on October 16, 2014 : "Numerous classification schemes of political systems developed in political anthropology (such as the classification into horde, tribe, chiefdom, state) are based on the importance of family relationships as an essential definition criterion" .

[Rasuly-Paleczek_2011-188-4] Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Typologisation of political systems in ethnology. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization. Part 5/5, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 188 , archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved on October 16, 2014 : “Today, the family relationships themselves are given a rather subordinate importance. They are now viewed primarily from the point of view of their usefulness for political action. [...] Implicitly or explicitly, most typologies of political systems, as already indicated, are based on an evolutionist view . (cf. SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986: p.227) [...] It should be noted in this context that these evolutionist typologies of political systems are heavily criticized today. So z. B. pointed out that within these different types of political systems, e.g. B. Tribe, Chiefdom etc., there are large internal differences and there are also companies such as B. those where so-called "big men" appear as leading figures who do not fit into these evolutionist schemes and are therefore often difficult to classify. In addition, there are very different connections of diverse socio-political types in today's modern nations, which can only be inadequately represented by using an evolutionist typology. (Seymour-Smith, 1986, p. 227) " .