Three Stages in the Evolution of Slavery in Precivilized Societies

Analysis of a small sample of cross-cultural data suggests that slavery evolves through three stages in precivilized societies. At first, slaves are mainly war captives from other societies and serve primarily to symbolize the dominance of the victor over the vanquished: their economic func tion is minimal. Second, the importance of "dominance slavery" declines as the locus of the dominance struggle shifts to some extent from between to within societies, developing on a larger scale with a diversified struc ture and hierarchy. Finally, economic power becomes stratified until poverty forces an increasing proportion of the population into "economic slavery," the purpose of which is primarily productive exploitation, and which is ultimately codified in law along with other economic and au thority relationships in higher precivilized societies

Biology · Development economics · Dominance (genetics · Economic power · Economics · Geography · Hierarchy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Poverty · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law

• Persisting and Disappearing Traits in the Development of Precivilized Societies

  Open Access•Edgar Bowden•Journal of Cross-Cultural…•1973

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• The role of the aged in primitive society.

  Leo W Simmons•The role of the aged in primitive…•1970

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• An Index of Sociocultural Development Applicable to Precivilized Societies

  Open Access•Edgar Bowden•American Anthropologist•1969

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• A Scale for Developmental Processes

  Robert K Leik, Merlyn Matthews•American Sociological Review•1968

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• A Dimensional Model of Multilinear Sociocultural Evolution

  Open Access•Edgar Bowden•American Anthropologist•1969

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