List of stateless societies

This is a non-exhaustive 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

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The following groups have been cited as examples of stateless societies by some commentators. But the classification of these societies as truly "stateless" is controversial.

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]

## Indigenous societies

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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 | [6]
Imazighen | Agricultural | Maghreb | [6]
Andamanese | Hunter-gatherer | Andaman Islands | [7]
Anga | Horticultural | Jos Plateau | [8]
Anuak | Horticultural | Anuak Zone, Gambela | [6]
Bassa | Subsistence agriculture | Bassaland | [8]
Berom | Subsistence agriculture | Jos Plateau | [8]
Birifor |  | Volta | [8]
Bobo | Subsistence agriculture | Bobo-Dioulasso | [8]
Croatan | Subsistence agriculture | Croatan Sound | [9]
Dan | Agricultural | Man | [8]
Dayak | Agricultural | Borneo | [6]
Dogon | Subsistence agriculture | Dogon country | [8]
Ekoi | Horticultural | Ekoi land | [8]
Gagu | Pastoral agriculture |  | [8]
Grebo |  | Grebo land | [8]
Hopi | Agricultural | Hopi Nation | [10]
Ibibio | Horticultural | Akwa Ibom | [8]
Idoma | Hunter-gatherer | Benue | [8]
Ifugao | Horticultural | Ifugao | [6]
Igbo | Horticultural | Igboland | [11][8]
Ijaw | Horticultural | Niger Delta | [8]
Inuit | Hunter-gatherer | Arctic | [6]
Kissi | Subsistence agriculture | Guinea Highlands | [8]
Konkomba | Horticultural | Northern Ghana | [6][8]
Kru | Fishing | Grand Kru County | [8]
Kusasi |  | Kasaug Traditional Area | [8]
Lugbara | Subsistence agriculture | West Nile | [6]
Mamprusi |  | East Mamprusi | [8]
Mano | Horticultural | Nimba County | [8]
Mapuche | Pastoral agriculture | Araucanía | [12]
Maragoli |  | Vihiga County | [8]
Mbuti | Hunter-gatherer | Ituri Rainforest | [13]
Niitsitapi | Hunter-gatherer | Blackfeet Nation | [14]
Nubian | Agricultural | Nubia | [15]
Nuer | Pastoralism | Nuer Zone, Gambela | [8]
Pequot | Agricultural  | Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation | [16]
Piaroa | Subsistence agriculture | Orinoco | [17]
Puliklah | Hunter-gatherer | Yurok Indian Reservation | [6]
Tallensi | Horticultural | Tallensi Traditional Area  | [8]
Plateau Tonga | Subsistence agriculture | Binga | [6]
Quinnipiac | Hunter-gatherer | Quinnipiac River | [18]
Sami | Pastoralism | Sápmi | [6]
San | Hunter-gatherer | Central Kalahari | [19]
Santals | Agricultural | Jharkhand | [6]
Semai | Subsistence agriculture | Perak | [20]
Seminoles | Hunter-gatherer | Seminole Nation | [21]
Shona | Subsistence agriculture | Mashonaland | [8]
Tiv | Horticultural | Tivland | [6][8]
Urhbo | Subsistence agriculture | Niger Delta | [8]
Zomia |  |  | [22]

## See also

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* Politics portal
* Society portal

* Stateless society
* Stateless nation
* Statelessness

## References

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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.
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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barclay, Harold (1990). People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy. Seattle: Left Bank Books.
7. ^ John Zerzan, Future Primitive Revisisted (Port Townsend: Feral House, 2012), 13-14.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 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."
9. ^ "Indian Towns and Buildings of Eastern North Carolina", Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, National Park Service, 2008, Retrieved 24 April 2010.
10. ^ Eggan, Fred, Social Organization of the Western Pueblos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960)
11. ^ Emmanuel C. Onyeozili and Obi N. I. Ebbe, “Social Control in Precolonial Igboland of Nigeria”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies (2012)
12. ^ Zibechi, Raúl (2010). Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements. Oakland: AK Press.
13. ^ Turnbull, Colin (1968). The Forest People. New York: Simon & Schuster.
14. ^ 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.
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ 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.
17. ^ Graeber, David (2004). Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Chicago: Prickly Paradigms Press. pp. 26–27.
18. ^ John Menta, The Quinnipiac: Cultural Conflict in Southern New England (New Haven: Yale University, 2003)
19. ^ Lee, Richard (2003). The Dobe Ju/hoansi. Thomas Learning/Wadsworth.
20. ^ Robert K. Dentan, The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979
21. ^ 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.
22. ^ Scott, James (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: University of Yale Press.