They were however, not states but independent tribal
chieftainships who constantly fought each other for supremacy.
Melanesia offers particular advantages for testing such theories in that its societies ranged from largely egalitarian to those involving competitive leadership and hereditary
chieftainships.
Not only did it suffer the loss of its economic base, its agricultural lands, forests, and other natural resources but it also suffered the loss of its political and cultural institutions: its
chieftainships, its traditional social structure with its learned classes, secular and ecclesiastical.
Apart from the stratified Brunei and Iranun coastal societies, indigenous peoples of northern Borneo were classless acephalous societies, not
chieftainships. Leadership was determined by individual knowledge and wisdom, and there were no hereditary chiefs.
Throughout his reign, Durrani consolidated
chieftainships, petty principalities, and fragmented provinces into one country.