Jurisdictional hierarchy serves as a proxy for society size
Evidence
Societies in the world vary in what anthropologists call jurisdictional hierarchy—some societies are communities, small bands with no known social hierarchy. The Hadza and many hunter-gatherer groups fit this category. Others are small or large chiefdoms, which have larger populations and have a chief. Fiji, for example, has historically been a collection of chiefdoms with big men at the helm. Next are states, and finally, large states, which have the largest populations with extensive social complexity, and encompass the vast majority of the world’s population. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 417
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Defines jurisdictional hierarchy as the proxy scale from bands through chiefdoms to large states.