ABSTRACT
If the term "class" is used to describe objectively differentiated degrees of access to the means of production of the society without any necessary implications of sharply reduced mobility, class consciousness, or overt interclass struggle, the early states characteristically were class societies. Turning from cohesive bonds based on real or fictive kin affiliations within social segments, the people must consider the growth of differentiated, hierarchical principles of organization affecting the society at large. Provisionally, pending the completion of restudies now under way, the people may begin by noting that Sumerian referential kin terminology follows generational lines. Moses Finley essential point is that the data from the Old World, both Near Eastern and Classical, does not reflect a polarization of society into slaves and free citizens but, instead, a wide spectrum of alternative possibilities. The conclusion from the archeological evidence that late Early Dynastic society was a stratified, class system is confirmed and amplified by the contemporary written records.
