ABSTRACT
Beaker folk who released the immanent forces of social change were immigrants, foreign to the British Isles; for they differ quite conspicuously in physical characters from the population represented in their chamber tombs and from the old women found under the walls of Skara Brae. The relations between Beaker-folk and the people of Skara Brae are not so clearly defined. Of course such specialization and commodity production pre-suppose the production of a social surplus. Technologically the Beaker culture, judged by grave goods and domestic rubbish, was no more advanced than those attributed to stage II; it was still essentially Neolithic. Besides mere seniority, practical success, real or reputed wisdom, prowess in war, may have helped. But neither wealth nor prowess alone can earn enduring political authority; it must be consecrated. .
