Warfare and socio-political hierarchies: reflections on non-State societies of the Predynastic Nile Valley

Abstract

In a recent article, anthropologist Robert L. Carneiro reassessed his most debated hypothesis about the emergence of chiefdoms and the State as a result of environmental or social circumscription, theorized for a series of historical contexts including that of the Predynastic Nile Valley. The problem of the origin of the State is beyond our scope, but regarding the emergence of institutionalized leadership and chiefdoms in the Nile Valley, Carneiro’s ideas about warfare as a main factor in the process of social change remain interesting, even when his insistence in circumscription is still debatable. The aim of the present paper is to briefly review the available archaeological evidence of warfare among non-State societies of the Predynastic Nile Valley, and to evaluate its possible relation to the emergence of socio-political hierarchies, in turn refering to and criticizing some of Carneiro’s recent ideas about the issue.