WHI-Chap19-Obj1

Stateless Societies Stateless societies were small societies without a centralized government of any kind. Stateless societies in Africa were governed by families with the family head or chief having absolute power within the society. The fact that stateless societies have no centralized government and the fact that the leader had absolute power is what differentiated them from the societies of other civilizations which had systems of governors, provincial rulers, and sometimes even a system of checks and balances.