ABSTRACT
Theory concerning the rise and constitution of past complex societies has struggled with the relation of state and society. Many models, and some drawing on Durkheim’s concept of organic solidarity, have stressed the role of integrative institutions. Seminal in this vein was the work of Elman Service (1975:53), which considered everything in complex societies, including “technological, economic, religious, artistic, and recreational functions . . .” as “depend[ent] on the ability of the political aspect of the culture to integrate and protect the society.” Other models have stressed the roles of internal tensions and ranking in the rise of complexity, a broad perspective well-summarized in Morton Fried’s remark (1967:27) that “[e]quality is a social impossibility.” Models in this tradition, influenced to varying degrees by Marxist social thought, take the position that states fundamentally institute inequality.
