The Benin Kingdom (13th – 19th Centuries) as a Megacommunity
Journal Title: Social Evolution & History - Year 2015, Vol 14, Issue 2
Abstract
The article provides an anthropological analysis of the socio-political system of the Benin Kingdom from coming to power of the Oba dynasty till the British conquest. The course of this system formation and its basic characteristic features are outlined. It is argued that the Benin Kingdom between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries was a supercomplex society but not a state, as it was not based on suprakin (territorial) social ties and there was no professional (bureaucratic) administration in it. The kin-based extended family community always remained this society's focus, and the supracommunal institutions were built up by its matrix, what is impossible in a state. So, being not less complex and developed than many so-called ‘early states’ (e.g., Claessen and Skalník 1978) or ‘archaic states’ (Feinman and Marcus 1998), Benin was not a state but rather a specific alternative to the state. This form of socio-political organization can be called ‘a megacommunity’ and depicted as four concentric circles forming an upset cone: the extended family, the community, the chiefdom, and finally the kingdom.
Authors and Affiliations
Dmitri M. Bondarenko
Keywords
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