A Band Society is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan. Bands have very informal leadership; the older members of the band generally are looked to for guidance and advice, but there are no written laws and none of the coercion, e.g., police, seen typically in more complex societies. Bands' customs are almost always transmitted orally. Formal social institutions are few or non-existent. Religion is generally based on family tradition, individual experience, or counsel from a shaman. All known band societies hunt and gather to obtain their food. (See Subsistence) Human relationships within an ethnically diverse society. ... Extended family is a term with several distinct meanings. ... A clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by perceived descent from a common ancestor. ... The stela of King Hammurabi depicts the god Shamash revealing a code of laws to the king. ... Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to act by employing threat of harm (usually physical force, sometimes other forms of harm). ... A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom. ... Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. ... The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering, also known as Foraging freeganism involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment gleaning involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields Cultivation Horticulture - plant cultivation, based on the...

In his 1972 study, The Notion of the Tribe, Morton Fried defined bands as small, mobile, and fluid social formations with weak leadership that do not generate surpluses, pay no taxes and support no standing army. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Morton H. Fried was a prominent anthropologist of the twentieth century. ... The word leadership can refer to: the process of leading the concept of leading those entities that perform one or more acts of leading. ... A tax (also known as a duty) is a financial charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e. ... Army (from French armée) can, in some countries, refer to any armed force. ...

Bands are distinguished from tribes in that tribes are generally larger, consisting of many families. Tribes have more social institutions, such as a chief, big man, or elders. Tribes are also more permanent than bands; a band can cease to exist if only a small group walks out. Many tribes are in fact sub-divided into bands; in the United States, some tribes are made up of official bands that live in specific locations. A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states, though some modern theorists hold that contemporary tribes can only be understood in terms of their relationship to states. ... This article is about the leader. ... Mobutu Sésé Seko: a big man of African politics. ... An elder can refer to various topics: Elder (administrative title) Elder (religious) Elder - person of knowledge or high degree Elderberry plant (Sambucus) Box-elder plant (maple) Box elder bug (Leptocoris trivittatus or Boisea trivittatus) Elderly person - see: Old age William Henry Elder bishop and Archbishop of Cincinnati Joycelyn Elders Elder...

With the spread of the modern nation-state to all corners of the globe, there are very few true band societies left. Some historic examples include the Inuit of northern North America, the Shoshone of the Great Basin, the Bushmen of southern Africa, and some groups of Indigenous Australians. The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ... There are other articles with similar names; see Inuit (disambiguation). ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Shoshone around their tipi, probably taken around 1890 Shoshone Indians at Ft. ... Drainage map showing the Great Basin in orange Various Definitions of the Great Basin (NPS) The Great Basin is a large, arid region of the western United States. ... The Bushmen (also known as Khwe Khoe, Basarwa, or San) peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... See also, List of Indigenous Australian group names Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ...

Compare to Lineage-bonded societies ...