The "early state" and its main characteristics

Abstract

This article presents some of the most essential characteristics of the so-called early state, a concept that has been actively promoted in the last 50-60 years by cultural anthropology and ethnology to describe a form of politico-social structure in the post-chiefdom era. In order to avoid the “traps” of the so-called linear perspective in humans’ development, the author considers it more acceptable in each particular study one to look for the intersections between history, with its tendency to focus on changes, and anthropology and ethnology, which have a greater affinity for stable structures.

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