Anarchy and Ecology: Political Society among the Majangir

Abstract

The Majangir are shifting field cultivators who exploit an abundance of forested land in southwest Ethiopia. Lacking fixed property and adapted to residential mobility and geographical dispersal over an uncontested and underpopulated ecological niche, the Majangir have developed an anarchic and amorphous political society. Their egalitarian society lacks institutionalized political leadership as well as organized corporate groups of any kind. Self-help and the feud are common; in the absence of institutional mechanisms for settling disputes, they tend to resolve conflicts by moving their residence. Their low level of social and political integration sets the Majangir apart from most horticultural peoples and does not fit the stage typologies proposed by several evolutionary theorists.