Stateless societies reveal forgotten patterns of human interdependence

Evidence

The discovery of such a world depends heavily on the achievements of British social anthropology. By investigating societies without states in Africa and Oceania, my predecessors revealed patterns of social organization and human interdependence that we had forgotten and could not recreate in our philosophical speculations. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2403

Categorization

• XREF: The stateless-society comparison echoes the reader’s interest in trust without institutional monitoring — cf. the law-merchant scholarship showing reputation can order trade pre-state. — connects to: Status-seeking predates capitalism and exists in stateless societies — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 60