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chiefdom

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chiefdom

Type of sociopolitical organization in which political and economic power is exercised by a single person (or group) over many communities. It represents the centralization of power and authority at the expense of local and autonomous groupings. Political authority in chiefdoms, such as those found in western Africa or Polynesia, is inseparable from economic power, including the right by rulers to exact tribute and taxation. A principal economic activity of the heads of chiefdoms is to stimulate the production of economic surpluses, which they then redistribute among their subjects on various occasions. See also sociocultural evolution.



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In 1640, Massachusetts legislators conceded that it was the colonists' responsibility to keep cattle from destroying Indians' corn, while in the Chesapeake it was less likely for colonists to even consider native grievances, especially after the subjugation of the Powhatan chiefdom in 1646.
Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America by Mizelle, Brett / Journal of Social History
Significantly, the Lunda-Kazembe chiefdom is viewed as exemplary of this political-mercantile dynamic, and the Mutomboko ceremony has indeed become a model for some of the new ceremonies that desire to keep the socioeconomic arteries of a modem, independent Zambia open.
A crown on the move: stylistic integration of the Luba-Lunda complex ... by Simbao, Ruth Kerkham / African Arts
Under his rule the government of the island chain evolved from chiefdom to modern kingdom.
Changes in Kanaka Maoli men's roles and health: healing the warrior ... by Berry, Shaun P. / International Journal of Men's Health
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