Types of Human Societies: Classifying Human Societies

Over the years, this process of comparison has given rise to many systems of classification in the various sciences. The periodic table in chemistry, the Linnaean taxonomy and its successors in biology, and the paleontological and petrological systems in geology are several of the more familiar. All of these systems help us to make sense of the wealth of data that has been generated by research, and each serves as a guide to scientists, suggesting new comparisons for study and new lines of research. But most important of all, each of these systems of classification has stimulated the development of theories designed to explain the patterns and regularities that have been discovered.

The system of classification that we will use in studying human societies is based on the subsistence technologies that they employ. The origins of this system, like the origins of ecological-evolutionary theory itself, lie in the work of seventeeth- and eighteeth-century scholars in Europe who responded to the discovery of less developed societies in the New World, Africa, and Asia by rethinking age-old questions about human origins and history. This led some of them to comparisons of societies and to efforts to classify them. Already in the eighteenth century, a number of scholars recognized the crucial importance of subsistence technology and based their systems of classification to it.

 

The system of classification used in this volume grows out of that early work. It divides human societies into ten basic categories, with individual societies classified on the basis of their primary mode of subsistence.

§  Hunting and gathering societies

§  Simple horticultural societies

§  Advanced horticultural societies

§  Simple agrarian societies

§  Advanced agrarian societies

§  Fishing societies

§  Maritime societies

§  Simple herding societies

§  Advanced herding societies

§  Industrial societies

For a system of classification to be useful in science, it should be as simple as possible so that the classification of cases can be as unambiguous as possible. For example, a society is classified as a hunting and gathering society if the hunting of wild animals and foraging for uncultivated plant food are its primary means of subsistence. Horticultural societies are societies which engage in farming, but do not use the plow. Advanced horticultural societies employ metal tools and weapons, while simple horticultural societies use wood and stone. Agrarian societies also engage in farming, but they make extensive use of plows. Advanced agrarian societies employ iron tools and weapons, while simple agrarian societies use copper and bronze, which are softer metals and less plentiful.

Fishing, herding and maritime societies are different from the other types of societies in that they are environmentally specialized types. Each of them is distinguished from other societies at roughly the same level of development, not so much in terms of the technological information they possess, but rather in terms of what they use in their susistence activities. Each relies disproportionately on those elements in its technology that enable it to subsist on open grasslands with sparse rainfall. Maritime societies, like fishing societies, utilized their proximity to water, though in a different way: being technologically more advanced, they adapted their technology to the use of waterways for trade and commerce at a time when the movement of most goods was much cheaper by water than by land.

Technologically, there is more variation among herding societies than among either of the other specialized types. For this reason, the category is divided into simple and advanced types. The basic distinction is that the latter employ horses or camels for transportation in work and warfare, while the former lack this important resource.

TABLE 4.1  Criteria for Classifying Primary Types of Human Societies

Type of Society	Plant Cultivation*	Metallurgy*	Plow*	Iron*	Inanimate Energy Sources*
Hunting and gathering	-	-	-	-	-
Simple Horticultural	+	-	-	-	-
Advanced Horticultural	+	+	-	-	-
Simple Agrarian	+	+	+	-	-
Advanced Agrarian	+	+	+	+	-
Industrial	+	+	+	+	+

*The symbol + means that the trait is widespread in the type of society indicated; the symbol – means it is not.

Industrial societies are the newest type of society and technologically the most advanced. The distinguishing feature of these societies is their heavy dependence on machine technology and on the inanimate sources of energy—coal, petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear power—that drive the various machines. Because of their highly advanced technology, industrial societies are the most powerful and productive societies the world has ever seen.

Not all societies fit neatly into the ten types of societies listed above. Some are hybrids that combine, in roughly equal proportions, the characteristics of two or more of the basic types. Often—though not always—hybrid societies are in a state of transition from one mode of production to another and from one level of development to another. Thus, many Third World societies today are beginning to industrialize, but still depend heavily on preindustrial technology.

(Source: Lenski, Gerhard, & Lenski, Jean. 1987. HUMAN SOCIETIES: AN INTRODUCTION TO MACROSOCIOLOGY. 5th Ed. United States of America: McGraw-Hill, Inc. pg 78-81)

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