Chiefdoms

Even though before this there had been a lot of women leading villages, pretty much all of these chiefs seem to have been men, everywhere in the world. Maybe this is because the new chiefs needed to be war leaders as well as judges.

Instead of farming, like the other people in the village, the chief would spend all his time organizing things and deciding things for the village. He would be the judge if anyone disagreed, and he would organize big things like wars, or building a town wall, or a new irrigation system.

Often there were people who disagreed about who should be chief- then one chief might be killed, and somebody else would get to be in power. But once you have started having a chief, it's hard to stop again, because there's always somebody who wants to be chief.

Pretty soon, the chiefs also began to want their sons to be chief after them. Sometimes they were able to manage this and sometimes not.

Other places where there were not so many people began to have chiefs a little later. In China and India, and Greece, there may have been chiefs by about 3000 BC. In the rest of Europe, probably by about 2000 BC. In parts of central Africa, where not so many people lived, not until maybe as late as 1000 AD (though we know very little about it).

Big Men
Complex Chiefdoms
States
Main government page