Mechanisms That Prevent State Formation
Primitive societies use collective mechanisms to inhibit centralized power, such as:
- Chiefs with limited authority, always at risk of losing prestige
- Dispersal and segmentarity maintained through war and alliances
- Band/pack structures that prevent stable hierarchies
- Ethnological evidence (Clastres) shows war as a tool to ward off state formation, not as a product of it
- These mechanisms foster immanent relations and resist the crystallization of state apparatus
- Understanding these helps users see how social organization can remain decentralized and adaptive
