Ranking Resource and Exchange

Ranked Societies Are Characterized By Disparities In Personal Status That Are Often Accompanied By The Concentration Of Power And Authority In The Hands Of A Few Dominant Individuals. They Stand Between The Sophistication Of Developed States And The Relative Simplicity Of Most Hunter-Gatherer Groups And Early Agriculturalists. In Some Places And Times They Represented Relatively Brief Phases Of Transition To More Complex Forms Of Organization; In Others They Existed As Stable Forms Of Adaptation For Thousands Of Years. They Are Thus Of Great Interest For Archaeologists Seeking To Understand The Dynamics Of Cultural Evolution.